When Galaxies Collide: A KotOR & Mass Effect Crossover
by TheUnperson
Summary: The Reapers were not destroyed, and thus the entire galaxy was doomed to extinction. The last bastion of survivors fired their people out of the galaxy to explore vast new galaxies in order to preserve their history, however they are about to stumble into another galactic war they cannot escape from...
1. Prologue

_**-So this is my new X-Over for two games that I utterly love. Now to get a few things out of the way, I have altered some of the concepts of both universes to my own will so that it is easeir to write a coherent story around them. I have altered the plot for Kotor a little bit just to make things more interesting and to link the two games together, no details yet, you'll just have to wait and see. This takes place after the 'refusal' ending of Mass Effect 3, so major spoilers for one of the endings right here on this chapter.-**_

 _ **Prologue**_

The Crucible didn't activate. The Reapers were not destroyed. The fight continued, but was extremely short, within a few minutes the Citadel was destroyed and the surrounding fleets were decimated within a few hours. The remaining fleets made a hasty retreat as the Reapers consumed Earth. The Normandy was among the last ships to retreat, Joker and Tali didn't want to leave Shepard behind, but when the Crucible and the Citadel were destroyed their fears were realised and they were forced to retreat. Earth had completely succumbed to the Reapers and more worlds would follow. Word came through that Thessia was lost, a few days later it was known that Palaven had also been destroyed. The surviving fleets regrouped at less than half their original strength and instead opted for a defensive strategy rather than offensive. The Reapers simply came at them harder and faster.

Each race was desperate to preserve their species and tried many things, hiding them underground, on other planets and uncharted systems. The Reapers would find them. The remaining alliance command set up a sleeper ship program whereby ships would be converted into carriers with millions of sleeper pods that would preserve the races as they were fired into other galaxies. Mass relays were tested, dormant ones activated, a relay that catapulted ships outside the known galaxy was found. Over one hundred ships were converted, the Normandy one of them, as they were preparing to leave a fleet of Reapers entered the system and began attacking the fleet. The defence fleets engaged the Reapers at heavy costs. Over three quarters of the Sleeper Fleet were destroyed, they had no choice but to leave. After the last ship had left, the remaining fleets destroyed the relay so that the Reapers could not follow them, thousands of people sacrificed their lives for the Sleeper Fleet.

The Normandy stood at the head of the Sleeper Fleet, carrying a mix of Council Races and non Council Races. The cargo bay had been converted to hold the pods, nearing into two hundred pods, the crew deck was also converted to hold 80 pods. All in all the Normandy carried just under three hundred beings. As the ship made the mass relay jump, the crew began to enter the pods, Joker left EDI to monitor them and awake them when they arrived in the new galaxy. The ship went quiet.

 _ **-Whew, that went well didn't it? More chapters coming soon, not sure how long this will be but so far I've got the next 5 chapters all planned out.-**_


	2. Lost

**_New chapter woo! I've already got the next 3 written out, will be releasing them periodically over the next few days and weeks._**

From the depths of space, the Sleeper Fleets arrived. Appearing out of nowhere in an unknown area of space, near to a star and a few systems. EDI began the process of awaking the crew, Joker was the first to wake up and he was in his seat almost as quick.

"EDI what's our status." Joker asked in a very stern tone.

"The ship has arrived, I have begun awaking the crew." EDI's voice rang out through the ship.

So this was it, another galaxy with new races they would never have seen before. Quickly his attention was brought to the matter at hand "Any word from the other ships in the fleet?"

"We have not received any confirmation from them, Jeff. It is likely that they were propelled into other parts of this galaxy or into completely different ones." the female voice of the ship's AI was cold but slightly reassuring.

Joker sighed, no word from the other ships and their galaxy was probably completely consumed by now. He wanted to keep things light through and he didn't want to bring unnecessary pressure on the crew or his AI companion. "Hey, uhh... EDI where's your body?"

"It is currently on the crew deck, it was costing too much power to run and could have harmed a pods efficiency if I had left it functional." EDI replied. "I am however activating it now and bringing it up to you." Joker felt better, at least his friend was unharmed. He couldn't say anything about the crew though. It was hard enough on the crew just to leave the Commander, leaving the galaxy outright just made it even harder on the crew. Especially on Shepard's closest friends. Liara and Garrus tried to keep quiet about it and keep focussed on the mission, but it was easy to tell that they were affected badly. He worried the most about Tali though, she had been extremely reclusive since the retreat. She kept to herself and hardly conversed with anyone save for Garrus. She had requested a pod be built for her in Shepard's cabin, Joker held his face in his palm.

"Jeff, what is wrong? I can tell something is on your mind, you only have your hand against your face like that if you are upset or thinking about something." EDI said, walking up just behind him and sitting in her usual chair.

Joker felt surprised by the question, he wasn't sure he could open up to her. "I'm worried about the crew. Losing Shepard was hard, but I can't imagine what some people feel about completely leaving the galaxy behind."

"How do **you** feel Jeff?" EDI asked very quickly after Joker had finished.

"I feel... bad for leaving the Commander. But as long as I have you I feel fine." Joker replied honestly. "I'm most worried about Tali, though." He turned to EDI

"She is currently leaving her pod, should I speak to her?" EDI asked, it was best if no one had any problems, but with Tali it could not be helped.

"I doubt she holds much love for synthetics after they destroyed the galaxy, maybe Garrus or Liara would be better." Joker said, he knew her well enough, but he didn't have that kind of connection. "To be honest, I would wait until she gets down here before trying to talk to her."

"If you think that's right then I won't interfere. Most of the crew are still in their pods, and most of the passengers were just getting up." EDI accelerated the process so that they would wake up faster. "We should stay where we are until we are ready to move so that if there are any ships that haven't yet arrived we can greet them.

"Yeah that's a good idea."

Several hours later, the crew had gotten to their respective stations and the Normandy was busy again, the CIC was alive with activity and crewman were constantly moving about. Joker had engaged the stealth drive in order to remain undetected. In the time that the crew had been awake, two more Sleeper ships had entered the system – the Asari and Turian. No sign of the Quarian or Salarian Sleeper ships, the Krogan did not run, they stayed to fight the Reapers right to the end they were probably destroyed by now. The Turian and Asari ships were much larger than the Normandy and had much bigger capacities, all in all just under one thousand people were spread between the three vessels.

"Now all we need to do is find somewhere to settle down!" Joker said over the noise of the CIC. As he said this, two Alliance patrol cruisers jumped in, they were a part of the fleet and were here mainly to protect them against any potential hostile encounters. They linked up with the rest of the fleet and things were starting to look better for them

Nobody talked about the Reapers, it was a subject that the less said about would be better, but everyone was thinking the same thing: what actually happened and why did they run?

At this point everyone was at their respective stations and everyone was working hard, except Tali who had not moved from Shepard's cabin for hours. It was getting to the point that people were worrying about her well-being. EDI asked her down a few times but she didn't respond or come down, some of the Quarian passengers tried to talk to her and bring her down but she either ignored them or told them to leave her alone.

Joker was starting to worry he called for Garrus and Liara to help out. "Garrus, Liara. Could you come up to the cockpit, we need to talk." Joker said over the intercom. A few seconds later they both appeared behind him and startled him.

"What is it, Joker, I was in the middle of some calibrations." Garrus said, slightly annoyed but sympathetic considering the situation.

"I likewise was in the middle of a critical experiment." Liara replied, trying to smile but failing.

"It's Tali." As soon as he said her name they both lost any hint of annoyance and they seemed more caring. "She hasn't left Shepard's cabin and we're worrying about her. You two know her better, so I was thinking you could at least get her to come down."

"Well my calibrations can wait, I'll be right up." Garrus turned and headed for the elevator at the back of the CIC.

"My experiments can be taken later, I'll see what I can do to help." Liara replied, trying to smile at Joker.

"Thanks guys, I would do it myself but I don't want to break my legs." Joker replied, spinning the chair back to the controls. "EDI, we should start thinking about moving the fleet. What have your scans picked up?"

"My long range scanners have picked up a system not too far from here that seems to have what is necessary for the species here. I can't pick up any kind of technology or life signs from this far away." EDI brought up her analysis onto the holographic readout in front of Joker.

"I'll take us to the edge of the system so you can make more scans of what we're dealing with." Joker was on edge, as was most of the crew. They would be exploring uncharted territory, for them at least. "Attention all vessels, this is the _Normandy,_ we're making an FTL jump to these co-ordinates in order to make scans on a nearby system. Once we reach the co-ordinates, await further instructions." He sent the co-ordinates to each of the five vessels surrounding the Normandy.

Just as they were making the preparations, two more ships jumped in. One was heavily damaged while the other was mostly fine. The damaged ship identified as a Quarian sleeper ship, while the other identified as a Turian cruiser sent to protect the fleet. The Quarian ship had sustained extensive exterior damage, with hull breaches in some sections. The captain explained that they had lost many sleeper pods from the damage. They left with about five hundred pods, but only 247 pods remained and a few of them were damaged which meant some of the passengers had died. A few minutes later a third ship jumped in, identifying as the Salarian sleeper ship.

As the elevator door opened both Liara and Garrus exited, they stood outside the cabin for a few moments thinking about what they would say to the saddened Quarian. She had locked the door, but left the intercom open so she could hear who was speaking. "Tali." Garrus said into the microphone. "It's Garrus, are you all right? Joker said you have been in here since we arrived." Garrus said coolly, trying to maintain a cheery voice which was difficult considering how his voice was.

Tali was lying on the bed, trying desperately not to think about Shepard or her home world and how she would never see them again. She could feel tears running down her face, it wouldn't be visible to anyone but she had been crying almost non stop since she woke from the pod. Upon hearing Garrus, she stopped sobbing for a moment and sat up contemplating whether or not to let him in.

"Tali. It's Liara. We want to talk to you." Liara said in a shy way, she really had no idea what sate Tali was in.

Tali felt loved, two of her best friends obviously wanted to see how she was doing. She didn't feel like talking about Shepard, but she knew she couldn't stay locked in there forever. She would have to leave at some point and now seemed as good a time as any. She stood up and unlocked the door, soon after she opened it to see them both standing quite stiffly in front of her. Without thinking she embraced Liara sobbing into her mask. Liara had no idea what to do and looked to Garrus for support who just looked on.

"Tali, it's okay. It's okay." Liara said, Tali continued to hold her but backed off slowly. She looked at Garrus who regarded her with a smile.

"I- I'm sorry Liara." She was still sobbing slightly. "I don- I don't know what came over me." She bowed her head and motioned for them both to come into the cabin.

Garrus spoke first, "Tali, we know what's wrong. We're here to help."

"I'm not sure you do know what is wrong." Tali answered quickly, she had stopped crying and was sitting on the bed.

"You weren't the only one to... lose him." Liara said.

Tali looked up, she flared with a little bit of anger. "Yes, but he didn't mean as much to as he did to me!" Soon after she apologized for getting angry. "I don't want to talk about him."

"It's fine Tali, but remember that we're here for you during this." Garrus spoke up.

"Thank you." Tali replied. "I'll come down to see everyone in a minute, please leave." The two obliged and left her their among her thoughts. She was extremely saddened by previous events, but her fire had been lit inside of her and she had received new energy. After a few minutes she headed down to the CIC to join her fellow crewmembers.


	3. A new enemy

_**New chapter woohoo! Next 2 coming soon.**_

The Normandy was being shaken by the jump an Joker was trying to maintain balance, there were just a few more seconds before they were out of the jump. Tali reached the cockpit just before the jump was completed.

"EDI what's going on!" Joker shouted at the carnage, he was struggling to keep it balanced.

"We are currently exiting FTL, brace yourself." A few seconds after EDI said this, the ship came to a grinding halt on the edge of the system, the other vessels jumped in behind them. EDI began her scans of the surrounding area. "Everyone okay back there?" Joker turned around seeing Tali standing, "Oh... hello Tali. How are you?"

"I'm fine, what's going on?" She asked completely coldly, she hoped that Joker would not ask about her.

"We've just left FTL and the drive is busted. EDI any chance of repairing this thing?" Joker turned around to his synthetic companion.

"I can do it." Tali said without waiting for a reply from EDI.

"Sure, if you think you can, go for it." Joker replied, Tali left and headed for engineering.

"Jeff, I have completed my scans and I have detected a nearby planet that is overrun with life signs and I am picking up advanced technology on the planet's surface." EDI said turning back to her console.

"Okay, EDI. I'll order the fleet to go to this planet and see what they can dig up while we repair the FTL drive." He made the necessary announcements while the rest of the fleet jumped away to the planet.

Tali got to work in the drive core, fixing up the FTL drive while the other ships made the jump. She took pride in her work, and at least it helped keep her mind occupied so she didn't think about what had been going down. She worked away while the other engineers looked on, they were probably worrying about her. Tali smiled, at least the people here cared about her.

While she was busy working away, Admiral Shala'Raan of the Migrant fleet came to her to talk.

"Tali'Zorah?" The admiral asked, Tali reared her head in acknowledgement. "I apologize, but you need to know something."

"What is it admiral?" Tali turned but continued her work.

"One of our ships, was severely damaged when it arrived. Only 200 Quarians survived out of 500." She said with an air of remorse in her voice.

Tali turned fully around to face the admiral, "Keelah..." She walked towards the admiral. "Where are they now?"

"They're fully repaired and have made the jump to a nearby system to see what has been happening over there." Shala replied cheerfully.

"Thank you, Shala'Raan. Keelah Se'lai." Tali returned to her work, she had the FTL drive fixed

"Keelah Se'lai." The admiral replied before turning around and returning to the war room.

"Hey the FTL drive is back on. Thanks Tali!" Joker shouted down the intercom. Tali accepted it as the ship entered FTL speeds. "The jump should only take about half an hour or so guys so hang tight, we'll be with the rest of the fleet soon." Joker said over the ship's intercom to the crew who all relaxed and seemed relieved.

* * *

"Jeff, I'm receiving a transmission from one of the ships on the fleet, putting it through to the war room." EDI said to joker.

"Um... okay. Garrus, Liara, we're receiving a message on vid comm. Head to the war room to receive the transmission." Joker said over the intercom, the two aliens obliged and made their way up to the war room. Tali, who had seen them both enter the comm room, decided to join them.

"I wonder what this could be about." Liara thought aloud as they entered the comm room, she noticed Tali behind her. "Hello Tali, are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine." Tali replied, "Just get the transmission up."

Garrus activated the console, and a fuzzy hologram of a Turian came up. After tweaking some of the buttons the image came in clearer. "This is... of fleet comm..." The Turian said but the transmission was bad. "Norma... do you read." The transmission came in clear.

"Normandy reads, what's going on?" Garrus asked the Turian who looked visibly worried.

"We're under attack by an unknown force. They are extremely powerful, we're holding but we won't be able to for much longer. The Quarian ship has ceased communication and we have lost one of our cruisers!" The Turian shouted over comms. The crew exchanged worried looks, Tali seemed distraught.

"What happened to the Quarian vessel?!" Tali shouted before Garrus could open his mouth.

"The enemy vessels disabled their kinetic barriers and boarded them with multiple shuttles. We sent some of our own marines to investigate, they are being hit hard by some very heavy resistance aboard. Send aid ASAP!" The Turian said before cutting communication. Tali already knew what she was doing, she left the room to get geared up and set up a squad of alliance marines in order to retake the vessel. Garrus quickly warned Joker of the incoming threat.

The ship dropped out of FTL into the debris field that was once a Turian battlecruiser. The remaining ships in the fleet were taking a beating, but holding out. In the shuttle bay, Tali, Garrus and Liara were preparing to board the Quarian vessel and determine what was going on. The rest of the fleet agreed to provide cover for them and would stay for as long as possible. The Normandy, however began firing at the enemy vessels with it's cannons. The enemy vessels had an intriguing design, one that had never been encountered before. They fired strange weapons that tested the kinetic barriers on the ship, however they held well. Two shuttles left the bay, one was carrying a small detachment of Alliance marines while the other was carrying Tali, Garrus and Liara headed for the Quarian ship.

The shuttles dropped, it was a bumpy ride for them. For the most part, the enemy vessels didn't notice the shuttles going for the disabled freighter, but they did send fighters to attack as they were reaching the ship. The shuttles touched down in a secondary hangar, away from the enemy shuttles. Upon landing the plan was laid out, Tali and the squad would head into the ship looking for the invaders and the crew while the Alliance marines would split into two groups, one would take an alternate route to the bridge, while the rest would guard the shuttles. Shortly after the shuttles had landed on the Quarian freighter, a third fleet arrived at the system on the other end above the planet.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Joker exclaimed in response to the new fleets arrival. However much to his surprise the new vessels did not attack the Normandy, they began attacking their attackers. The new fleet only had three capital class vessels.

"Jeff, I am picking up a transmission coming in right at the console. It is coming from one of the new vessels." EDI said as she checked the transmission and put it on the hologram.

"This is admiral Forn Dodonna of the Galactic Republic. Who may I ask am I speaking to?"


	4. Silver Soldiers

The boarding operation on the freighter was going well, the first squad had breached the lock down induced by the invaders. The group entered a room and spotted three strange soldiers clad in silver armour gathered around the corpse of a Quarian.

"Who the hell are they?" Garrus whispered while he loaded his rifle. "Okay, Liara take cover by those crates over there, when I give the signal start firing on them. Tali once the fighting starts move between cover towards them and unload your shotgun into them, I'll remain here and provide cover. Got it?"

The plan was good and the three took up their positions waiting for Garrus to give the signal. Garrus opened his omni-tool for a brief second, acting as their signal. Liara turned the corner and started shooting at one of the troopers in front of her, her weapons had little effect, but after a few shots his armour ruptured and the trooper fell to the ground dead. Garrus took aim with his rifle and lined up the scopes with a head, he fired and the trooper fell to the ground. Having claimed another kill, Garrus reloaded but was blind sided by the same soldier that he shot, he simply had a big dent on his helmet. Garrus was amazed, he was hit by their strange weapon a few times and his shields went down very quickly, he aimed in and fired at the troopers visor, seeing it as a weak spot, sure enough the trooper fell to the ground dead. Tali moved up completely undetected and jumped out of cover to fire her shotgun into the chest of the last trooper, direct hit. He staggered back and Tali fired another round which did put him down.

With each trooper dead the three of them regrouped to investigate their enemies and the dead Quarian.

"What the hell?" Garrus exclaimed in his own confusion. "What is their armour made of?"

Liara bent down in front of one of the troopers and used her omni-tool to analyse the armour and it's material. "It's a compound of steel and an unknown material, it seems to have a high durability."

"I'll say, that guy shrugged off a round from a sniper rifle!" Garrus exclaimed.

"Keelah..." Tali had knelt down in front of the Quarian, his mask had been removed and there was a burn all over it's face. Tali found the discarded helmet nearby and refitted it onto the Quarian. "Those _bosh'tet!_ Who could do this?!"

While Tali was inspecting the Quarian, Liara had scanned the enemies weapons. "These weapons have immense power, they seem to fire bursts of energy which is why our shields went down so quickly. If we had been hit by them then they likely would have burned our armour, successive hits would have burnt right through." Liara grabbed the rifle in two hands, it was heavy to hold but had the same functions as a normal rifle except there was nothing to load. "I suggest taking these weapons, they should be far more effective against our enemies if my scans are correct." Each of the three grabbed one of the strange rifles.

Back on the Normandy, Joker had acknowledged the Republic officer and had explained that they had refugees aboard and needed immediate assistance and an escort out of the system, they didn't seem all that fazed when he told them their origins.

"I see, well we will provide your forces enough cover to make a jump to these co-ordinates." The admiral transmitted a set of co-ordinates. "We'll talk more when you arrive."

"Wait! We have people aboard one of those ships, we need to extract them before we can leave the system." Joker hastily added.

"Understood, we'll provide cover while you extract your people. Admiral Dodonna out."

Tali and the squad continued towards the bridge, as they neared it they heard gunfire coming within, they peeked around the corner to see two Alliance marines in the middle of a firefight with 4 more of those soldiers. The three entered and got a chance to try out their new weapons. Garrus fired first and he was startled back by the intensity of the kickback, the bolt flew into the chest of one of the soldiers and he was thrown back by the blast while his allies turned to start shooting at the newcomers. Shots rang out and the Alliance marines began fighting harder, one of them sustained a wound to the arm, he screamed in pain as his friend continued shooting. Tali got up close and fired a few bolts into one of the trooper while shouting 'Bosh'tet'. The trooper went down with a very visible hole in his chest. Only two remained, Liara used a biotic warp which completely corroded the armour of the trooper and he fell to the ground dead. The last trooper fought on as the two groups surrounded him, he was gunned down shortly after the last one died.

"Normandy to Tali. Do you read?" Jokers voice could be heard over her omni-tool.

Tali brought up her omni-tool and responded "What is it?"

"A third fleet entered the system, they're protecting our escape. You need to get back here before we jump or you'll be left behind." Joker shouted down the comm.

"Well then let's finish up here and get the hell out!" Garrus said as they went to pick up the marines, they applied some omni-gel and continued back to the shuttles. Once they reached the bay they saw the marines holding out against more of those silver troops. The group intervened and dealt with the soldiers. They began loading onto the shuttles, first the wounded and then Garrus and then Liara... More troops spilled into the hangar and Tali and the remaining marines were forced to take cover as they fought back.

"Come on Tali!" Garrus shouted as their shuttle was hit constantly.

"Just go! I'll catch up with you!" Tali shouted, the shuttles kinetic barrier was about to go down so they were forced to leave. One of the remaining marines started the other shuttle as Tali finished off the last of the troops. She got aboard and set off for the Normandy at high speeds. However a few minutes after they left, a blast from a nearby capital ship rocked their hull and ruptured the engine controls forcing the shuttle to the planet surface.

Joker watched in horror as the shuttle fell out of scanning distance, he saw one of their 'allies' cruisers take a severe beating and what he assumed were escape pods were released only to careen down to the planet. Joker cursed himself as he prepared the FTL drive, he had been forced to leave another crew member behind. The admiral gave him the signal and one by one each ship made the jump to the nearby co-ordinates of a Republic base.


	5. Strange new World

_**Been a while since I last put a chapter up, I'll be putting two more up today.**_

Tali regained consciousness to see the ceiling of some kind of through the purple tint of her visor. She slowly turned her head to see lights, she felt safe and comfortable. She twitched her fingers and her legs, nothing broken. She moved her head over to the right to see a man sitting at a desk. Tali stirred, the man turned around to see his strange companion struggling to get up. Tali sat up and held her head in her hands, she had a nasty headache.

"Don't try to move to quickly." The unknown man had stood up and was sitting in a chair by her side.

"Wh- where am I?" Tali asked, slightly frightened by the man, he looked human but something was off about him.

"You're on the planet Taris, it's currently under martial law by the Sith. Nothing is getting on or off the planet." The strange man shook his head as he said this. Tali was puzzled at the mention of this 'Sith' faction, were they the ones that attacked her on the Quarian ship?

"Sith? What are the Sith?" Tali asked completely bewildered by what the man was saying.

The man looked very concerned "How don't you know? They are currently waging war against the Republic." Tali was even more confused by the mention of this 'Republic'.

Tali remembered, she was in a completely different galaxy that played by different rules. "Keelah..." Tali leaned forward. "You will not believe any of this."

"Why wouldn't I?" the man said obviously intrigued by what the strange alien was saying.

Tali proceeded to tell the man about how she came from a different galaxy and everything that had happened since they had arrived in this galaxy. The man didn't seem as confused as Tali would have thought, he seemed intrigued and sympathetic to her problems, he simply turned to her and smiled while offering his help.

"Why did you leave your galaxy?" The man inquired after Tali had finished speaking.

"There was... a war that tore the galaxy apart and forced many species to flee." Tali was not willing to go into details about exactly what happened. There was a short silence after she said this

"So um... what's your name?" The man caught her drift in that she didn't want to speak about it.

"My name is Tali." She replied, "What is yours?"

"Oh I'm Carth, Carth Onasi."

* * *

Carth had explained exactly what the war was and who was fighting it. He maintained that the Sith were evil and had to be stopped. They wanted to cause destruction against the Republic and the Jedi who were sworn to defend all life. Afterwards Tali revealed to Carth what had happened before she came to their galaxy, she told him her race and why she was constantly wearing an envirosuit. She was awed by this man who had never been to her galaxy so easily understanding the plight of her species. She talked of Shepard and how he had saved her and then vowed to destroy the reapers. Carth listened on in awe at everything Tali had been through, he had never heard of such a story and these 'Reapers' intrigued him.

"So, your species – the Quarians – there aren't many left?" Carth asked Tali

"No there aren't, so many died in the Sith attack. I assume the rest were captured by the Sith. I need to rescue them!" Tali said adamantly, she needed to find her people so that they could find somewhere else to colonize.

Carth looked on sympathetically, "I understand, but before that we need to get off this planet and rescue Bastila."

"Right, Bastila. She's a 'Jedi'... right?" Tali remarked to Carth.

"Right, and probably the most important one for this war. Her battle meditation made it possible to kill Revan." Carth replied obviously in awe of Bastila and her abilities. "I heard that some pods crashed into the lower city and under city."

"Then let's go get her." Tali said triumphantly while standing up.

"Wait. While you were out I did some scouting, the Sith don't seem to have captured Bastila yet, but I did hear some rumours about the Sith looking for Republic troops," Carth said, "But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't worry about a grunt like me. I also heard there's a gang war in the lower city which means that it may be difficult not to get shot at while we are down there."

"Those Sith might also be looking for me, I fought some when they invaded the ship." Tali turned to him worriedly, she didn't want to be a burden on Carth.

"Hm? No, I don't think so, I didn't hear anything about the Sith looking for people with your description. With any luck nobody will know who or what you are." Carth reassured her, he was being truthful even though he was a little unsure of it himself. "But maybe I should do the talking, just to be safe of course."

"Well, we shouldn't waste time. The sooner we get off this planet the better." Tali stood, grabbing her pistol from the table. She was just about to grab the rifle when Carth stopped her.

"Wait, don't take that rifle. It's a Sith rifle and they might recognize it. If they do then we are done for." Carth took the rifle and laid it on the table. "I looked over your weapons when I pulled you in here, they are projectile weapons. I assume they had little effect on the Sith armour?"

"Yeah, my friend, Garrus, fired a very powerful sniper at one of them and he shrugged it off like nothing." Tali asserted while she holstered her weapon.

"Sith armour is Durasteel, it can take grenade blasts. It's not surprising that the rounds had little effect. However most people don't have access to military grade hardware, your weapons should be fine for now. There is a problem with your suit however." Carth pointed at her suit.

"What's wrong with my suit? I can't take it off you know." Tali backed away a little while putting her hand on her chest.

Carth gave her a reassuring look, "It's not that. Your armour is a little weak, and blaster fire would melt it quite easily. We should consider upgrading the plates to be energy resistant."

"It's fine, I have a barrier that acts as a shield. It absorbs energy at the cost of losing strength, it does re-generate over time. However it was quite weak against the Sith so maybe an upgrade would help." Tali replied, pushing a button to demonstrate her shield.

Carth's worry disappeared and he seemed more convinced. "Okay then, we should get moving. Our first objective should be to get to the lower city and start looking for those escape pods."

"I agree, let's get moving." Tali said following Carth out of the apartment.

Once the door was open Carth saw a Sith officer hassling two Duros in front of them, he had two military droids guarding him. Carth motioned for Tali to stay behind him as they tried creeping away.

"Everyone up against the wall now! This is a raid!" The officer shouted into the two Duros faces. Tali was disgusted by this, she wanted to help these poor aliens best she could.

The Duros started speaking in a language that Tali could not understand, Carth understood some of it. "Already? This is the second time this week, why won't you Sith just leave us alone?" The officer responded by opening fire into the Duros, he fell to the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. Tali was horrified by this display,

"That's how we Sith deal with loud mouth aliens! Now the rest of you, up against the wall!" Carth stopped her from stepping forward and ending the officer. The officer heard this and turned, "Humans hiding out with aliens?! They're Republic fugitives, attack!" Everything went so fast, Carth pulled out his blaster and dropped one of the droids before the officer could react. Tali had pulled out her pistol and started shooting the officer, the bullets tore the fabric of his uniform and pierced his skin. He screamed in pain while firing a blast at her, her shield absorbed the energy and she continued shooting into the officer. He fell to the ground dead.

" _Bosh'tet_!"

The second droid was pre-occupied with Carth, who had shot it's photoreceptors causing it to go blind, it completely stopped moving allowing Carth to disable it manually.

The Duros, who had crouched down when the firefight broke out, stood up and thanked Carth and Tali for their assistance. Carth spoke to the Duros and told Tali what he had said.

"Carth, what did the alien say?" Tali inquired

"He said that the Sith have been looking for Republic fugitives for days now and they were becoming more desperate and forceful." Carth told Tali who seemed worried about the Duros possibly betraying them, Carth thought she may ask this "He also said that in return he would move the bodies somewhere else so it looked like the gangs had taken some shots at them."

"Oh! Could you tell him to leave one of the synthetics?" Tali hastily asked.

"He can understand you Tali." Carth turned and looked at her.

"Actually could you just leave one of their arms?" Tali asked nervously, the Duros had no idea why but obliged, she helped save his life after all. He began moving the bodies.

"Why did you take one of the arms?" Carth asked as Tali grabbed the arm and started to analyse it.

"I want to see your technology and see if I can put some of my own knowledge to use. Using my omni-tool I can hack a synthe- er I mean droid's core and have it fight for us." Tali replied as she started to dissect the technology in front of her.

"Will it take long?" Carth asked, feeling bogged for time.

"Keelah... your technology is... superior to ours. Quite superior in fact. Wait till you meet EDI." Tali continued to work.

"Who's EDI? Another one of your friends?" Carth asked, a smile coming onto his face.

"No, she is the ships AI, she does have a physical presence though." Tali replied in a happy tone, still working on the arm of the fallen combatant. "And... there! I've tapped into your technology, I should be able to hack their cores and cause them to fight for us." Tali dropped the arm and turned back to Carth, she was grinning under her mask though she doubted that Carth could tell.

"Let's keep moving. Not going to get Bastila just by standing here." Carth said trying to focus on the mission.

"Keelah, I can agree to that." Tali replied smiling under her visor.

The two of them continued around the apartment ring, Tali constantly fascinated by the structure and technology around her. Carth stopped for a moment to speak with a Twi'lek vendor. He bough himself some better armour and light vest for Tali.

"Here." Carth said offering the vest to Tali, she put it on. It was skin tight so it didn't hang and offered her decent protection. Although the brown colour did not fit with her purple suit.

"Thank you." Tali replied, now wearing the vest. It wasn't over encumbering her and she till felt nimble and fast even with the energy resistant plating.

As the two stepped into the apartment elevator, it began descending at a rate that Tali was unfamiliar with. She slightly jumped at the jolt made when the elevator stopped, Carth chuckled lightly as the Quarian adjusted to the new surroundings. As they stepped out of the elevator, Tali could not contain her excitement as she saw the magnificent scenery surrounding her. Giant buildings reached sky high while sky taxis transported people to where they were going, it was an impressive display and Tali was mesmerised by it's beauty.


	6. Diplomacy

**A/N: Following a recent review I have decided to rewrite parts of this chapter because it really is appalling how little thought I bothered to put it in.**

Admiral Dodonna walked down the pristine hallways of a Republic capital ship, as she passed soldiers saluted her and moved out of her way. Parts of the hallway had been damaged in the attack and were being repaired by droids as she walked by. She stopped by a smaller door and typed a code onto the keypad, a mechanical voice uttered "Briefing room access granted. Welcome admiral Dodonna." The door opened with a whir and the confident admiral stepped into the room. Inside there was a very large table with nobody sat down, as the Admiral sat at the head of the table she input some codes into the keypad when suddenly an entire board materialized into the chairs. They were clearly holograms, but they lacked distortion and they seemed to be live feeds.

Dodonna was the first to speak up, "Thank you all for attending this briefing. You all received my message?" She spoke with an air of command and certainty.

A rather gruff looking officer spoke up, he had a large scar on his left cheek and spoke with a deep, gravelly voice, "Yes, we did. And might I be the first to say how ridiculous it sounds!" The officer almost shouted. "You say that this ship is from another galaxy? This is obviously a Sith tactic to get behind our lines and deep into the chain of command, if one of them holds a gun to your head and steals your ship, don't say I didn't warn you."

A lighter voice spoke up, this one belonging to a young female officer sat opposite the last speaker, "I concur, we've already lost too many lives to take a chance on some strangers. They could very well be associated with the Sith." The officer said with an air of uncertainty in her voice, as if she were unsure if she even believed herself.

Another officer quickly interjected, "Yes but, as you say we have already lost too much. Maybe these strangers could hold the key to defeating the Sith, after all they are from another galaxy they may hold advanced technology." This officer looked almost untouched by the war, possibly just a ship captain on guard duty.

A Republic soldier quickly entered the argument, taking the side of the young captain. "You're not down here, you don't know what the Sith have been doing to our troops. We need all the help we can get even if it comes from complete strangers."

Another officer, this time a pilot entered the fray "We lost so many ships and people trying to evacuate these guys out. If we had ignored them then maybe we could have fought the Sith far more effectively!" The pilot shouted clearly aggravated by the recent battle. "We lost the Endar Spire during that battle, it was carrying both Bastila and Carth Onasi, and they may not be dead if we had ignored the strangers!" This last sentence raised a few eyebrows, Carth and Bastila being seen as heroes meant that their loss could not be taken lightly.

As Dodonna watched the pointless bickering unfold in front of her, she looked to the other end of the table to see a robed figure sitting at the desk, he was old and had an air of wisdom about him. He looked straight towards the admiral and simply nodded, Forn nodded in response. "Now is not the time for this bickering!" The admiral bellowed, quieting the other officers "Every day we lose more ground to the Sith, we are becoming desperate!" She continued her small rant "Master Vrook, what do have to say on this matter?" The admiral addressed the robed man on the other end of the table.

"The dark side is strong, it is... difficult to see with these strangers. Their actions are shrouded in mystery." The Jedi master replied keeping the other officers in line. "However these strangers could hold the key to stopping the Sith and ending this war, I would use caution as I sense that they have fled something far greater than even the Sith." The master said, none of the other officers dared interrupt. "You say Humans are with them?" He finished.

"Yes… we are just as baffled as you all are." Dodonna said, confusion written on her face "They can also speak Basic which is equally strange – even the aliens know enough to understand us."

"And that is why we cannot trust them!" The officer from earlier interrupted "This is clearly Sith deception, you should just kill them!" The other officers and captains looked on in surprise and shock, garnering a humiliated reaction from the officer who sank away as Dodonna glared at him.

"Where are the 'Guests' now?" Vrook asked as he rubbed his temples in a state of deep thought.

"We have them quarantined on the medical deck, they haven't seen our faces. They probably have no idea that we are human." Dodonna replied as she held a datapad in her hand which fed her live results of tests being carried out on the crew of the Normandy.

Vrook frowned as he places his hands on his lap "Keep them in the dark then, it may work to our advantage." He said as he contemplated what to do next, in his mind he admitted that even with all his knowledge he had no idea how to deal with the situation, the force had seemingly abandoned him; he could get no reading on these strangers. "They may help us yet, but I sense that they will have questions – far more than we may have for them."

Not wanting to disagree with a Jedi Master, most of the other officers simply nodded or gave a rough salute. Without a word, Dodonna disconnected from the transmission and continued down to the medical deck. She was going to have a word with these strangers.

The quarantine sector was located on the medical deck behind the highest clearance levels, there were two checkpoints set up with soldiers guarding regularly. Inside there were multiple labs and decontamination chambers, all personnel were required to wear airtight and sealable suits with gravity boots anchoring them to the ground. Entire sections of the sector could be opened up to the elements allowing contaminants – be it people or objects – blasted out into space in the event of an emergency.

The crew of the Normandy were inside one of these chambers under heavy guard while scientists and soldiers prodded and tested them for contaminants, the humans were not targeted as much, Liara and Garrus were at the mercy of the scientists inside a chamber directly beside the one containing the human crew members. Soldiers watched their every move and Garrus flinching at a poke from one of the scientists had all guns trained on his head. The crew did not like it for one second and the fact that their weapons had been carted off as soon as they were brought on board added to their apprehension.

Eventually the scientists stopped their work and Garrus and Liara were allowed to return to their fellow crew members. The military presence died down significantly until it was only two guards: one by the entrance and the other by the exit.

"This is bad." Ashley said in a hushed voice, hoping that the soldiers didn't hear her.

"Is it?" Garrus snidely asked, using sarcasm to his advantage "I think it's rather pleasant."

"Now is not the time for sarcasm, Garrus." Liara chided him to which Garrus responded by holding his hands up in a universal 'calm down' gesture.

"This is your fault Joker!" Ashley said quite angrily, "We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't co-operated!"

"Me?!" Joker replied loudly, garnering the attention of one of the soldiers standing guard, noticing this, Joker lowered his voice "They weren't the ones shooting at us, remember?! They gave me a choice and it seemed like a good one… at the time."

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is, all that matters is getting off this ship." Garrus said, dissipating the argument "Any ideas?"

"Our best course of action is just to comply." Liara stated obviously, "Without weapons and information we stand little chance out there. After all, it is a new galaxy."

The crew mostly nodded while murmuring to themselves, Garrus quickly shot up as he realised something "Hey… where's EDI?" He asked as he noticed the absence of her mobile platform.

"Jeff was unsure what this 'Republic' would do upon finding me, so I pretended to be a simple VI program in an attempt to fool them." EDI's voice rang through Garrus's ears as the AI answered his question.

"Hey… it worked on the Alliance after we took out the Collectors. I thought it could work here." Joker said, answering Garrus's question. "Besides, we need someone outside to help us -"

The door to the quarantine chamber opened with a large siren and red emergency lights. Steam was pumped into the room through valves on the floor and ceiling, the steam created a smokescreen blocking their vision of anything behind the door. The door creaked as it slid open, bright lights on the other side allowed the crew of the Normandy to see a figure silhouetted by the steam and the light.

"Goddess…"

"Spirits…"

"What the hell…?"

As Dodonna walked into plain view, the crew of the Normandy sat wide eyed and mouths agape, she was human.

"That's…." Liara started, Dodonna turned to face the Asari after hearing the alien language.

"Impossible…" Joker finished, Liara looked at the Joker as if she was comparing the human crew of the Normandy with the humans of the Republic.

"Just what we were thinking." Dodonna stated in an unintentionally aggressive tone, the crew of the Normandy stopped their murmurs as the admiral approached. She waved her hands and the nearby troops lowered their weapons. The admiral inspected the new arrivals; she looked at Garrus and Liara with the most intrigue. "We have an awful lot to discuss, but not here." Dodonna looked at the two guards "Escort them to the crew deck, I shall join them shortly.

Down on the crew deck of the strange ship, some of the crew of the Normandy were stood or seated around the deck. The rest of the crew were on the Normandy while Republic technicians and Scientists analysed their equipment and technology. The crew of the Normandy were kept largely secret from the rest of the crew, only high ranking officers knew of their origins and even less were allowed any contact with them. The rest of the crew at least knew that refugees had been picked up during the battle.

Most notable among the Normandy crew were Joker, EDI, Garrus, Liara, Shala'Raan, James and Ashley. Both the Asari and the Turian were being poked and prodded by the medical deck staff. Joker was sitting with EDI while Republic scientists analysed her body while she explained her core programming to them, Joker eyed the scientists but they assured him they only wanted to look. James and Ashley were talking to each other about something or other, mainly trying to ignore the fact that they had lost two major parts of their crew.

Dr Chakwas was also on the deck, speaking to the head medical officer about the application of Kolto while the doctor explained the application of medi-gel. "Most blaster wounds cauterise the arteries and veins which is extremely painful and creates terrible burns, submersion into a Kolto tank can heal severe injuries in a matter of hours. There are also handheld medpacks which are essentially small health kits that contain a Kolto spray and a variety of medical equipment." The medical officer explained.

"Sounds like application of medi-gel, this kolto is more effective against burns, medi-gel is more effective against lacerations and bullet wounds." explained after looking at both in depth. "Would it be possible to merge both formulas?" Dr. Chakwas asked.

"Well, Kolto requires a very special formula that can only be found on one planet; both sides are scrambling to gain as much as possible. Essentially we have a kolto shortage, your medi-gel formula could lend aid as an emergency back up, it would also be useful against melee weapons." The republic officer replied.

"Melee weapons." Dr. Chakwas inquired, "You mean swords and knives?"

"Oh yes, this war has seen the onset of personal shields. A traditional vibroblade or long sword cuts right through these shields so our soldiers are being trained in unarmed and swordplay in order to counter the enemy and their shields." A nearby lieutenant interjected hoping to correct the Dr. He wore heavy armour that was adorned with the Republic Marines logo.

Suddenly the large doors opened and Dodonna entered the bay, everyone on the deck, except the Normandy crew, stood to attention and saluted their superior. She quickly put them at ease before dismissing the crew in order to have a private word with their 'guests'.

As the crew of the Normandy relaxed a little after the crew had left, Dodonna eyed them without a word. She wasn't entirely sure if she trusted them, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The crew all noticed that the admiral was staring; they began to stare back before the admiral finally began to address them. "Hello. You have a lot to explain to us, do you have a moment?"

"Well... we are on your ship so whenever you want I guess." Joker remarked cracking a nervous smile, the admiral raised an eyebrow, not expecting such a crude remark. Seeing how the admiral reacted, Joker retracted himself letting someone else speak. "I'm sorry, we almost got destroyed out there... I guess I should thank you for bailing us out."

"Really there is no need, the Sith may not be willing to use diplomacy but the Republic is. However we did lose a lot during the battle." Dodonna replied trying not to sound intimidating, she began to walk closer to the crew.

Liara stepped forward eyeing the admiral nervously, "Sith? Do mean the ones who attacked us?"

Dodonna looked at the alien with a sense of intrigue, "I'm sorry, I cannot understand your language, you can understand me though?" Dodonna put a hand on her chest.

"That's what we've been wondering, how come our language is almost exactly the same?" Dr. Chakwas perked up in the conversation, drawing the attention of Admiral Dodonna.

Dodonna started to pace from side to side while the crew watched her. "I don't know what to say, our language – basic – has been the official language of the Republic since its beginning." Dodonna walked towards a nearby sign post, "But, can you read our writing?"

"Yes… it is a strange coincidence of biology. How is this possible?!" Dr. Chakwas was finding the most interest in their strange situation, finding that she was learning more and more with each word that the officer in front of her uttered.

"We don't know, but we can understand your writing as well, but that is not the most pressing matter on hand." Dodonna shook her head as she observed the group in front of her. "Why and how did you come to this galaxy?" The crew murmured unconvincingly, they looked as though they could all use a good rest. The admiral stepped backwards away from the crew and crossed her arms "I understand that you have sustained losses. I apologize that your first contact in this galaxy was so... violent, we are sorry for anyone that may have been lost during the battle and we will help you in any way that we can. I recommend that you sift through our archives and catch up on galactic history while we escort you to the core worlds." The captain stepped forwards an handed a datapad to Liara. "We ask that you provide us with adequate knowledge of your galaxy and the species you have brought with you so that we can learn more about each other."

Liara reached out and grabbed the datapad, it was larger than her hand to hold a large screen. The datapad had entries dating all the way back to the formation of the republic. EDI spoke up as Liara handed took the information calmly, "Our ship, the Normandy, possesses a codex with information regarding any topic, I shall unlock it for you now."

James stepped forward for a second, "Wait, you'll need a way to understand some of our alien _compadres."_ He reached into a compartment on his armour and pulled out a small device with a speaker and microphone. "If you put this in your ear it'll auto translate every known alien language." Dodonna looked at the soldier in front of him as if to politely refuse, James sensed her reluctance "It's cool, I can deal." He stated as he held the device out. Dodonna took the device with a smile and held it close to her ear.

"Can you understand me?" Liara asked, Dodonna smiled at the Asari and nodded in awe at the technology.

"Interesting, how is this normally integrated as I cannot see having a device in your ear as very safe or convenient?" Dodonna asked, her curiosity getting the better of her as she knew that the group in front of her needed some time to process everything that they had experienced.

"Normally it's an implant or attached to an omni-tool, but me an Liara can understand some of the human language." Garrus replied, bringing a little confirmation to Dodonna, she would have to find out what an "omni-tool" was later.

The admiral stepped back and put her hands to the side, "Thank you, shortly I will have you escorted to your quarters where you will remain for the remainder of the journey back to the core worlds. I have spoken to the other captains in your fleet and-"

Joker quickly sat up and interrupted "Wait! Why can't we return back to our ship and continue the journey from there?!" Joker stood up while the rest of the crew tensed up.

"We have analysed your technology and results show it as inferior to our hyperdrive technology, your FTL drive is not fast enough to contend with our speeds." The admiral handed over another datapad that compared the specifications of both forms of space travel. "An FTL jump from here to Coruscant could take days, a hyperspace jump would take an hour tops."

"Jeff, I am watching their every move. The Normandy is in impressive hands." EDI said reassuring Joker that his ship was still intact.

Joker sat back down more relaxed, "Well, looks like we could use an upgrade then!"

"Once we arrive, we will make the necessary changes to your engines and install a hyperdrive for hyperspace travel. We will also upgrade your weapon systems as currently they are vastly inferior to even the weakest laser cannons." The admiral replied in a calm tone.

"That's all for now, I will take my leave and return to the bridge. Should any of you need anything, simply ask." The admiral turned and left the room, keeping things professional. As the door shut behind her she breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as the admiral had left James spoke up from the other end of the room "I don't like this, that display was far too cold to be considered friendly."

"Hey, what's not to like? They're gonna upgrade the Normandy... FOR FREE!" Joker replied in a light hearted tone while turning to James.

"Well I see they got to you pretty quick." Ashley turned to Joker with a cocky grin. "They obviously want something from us, they wouldn't go through all this trouble just to be friendly to a bunch of strangers, they are at war after all."

"I don't know... I kinda like them." Garrus interjected, "At least they didn't shoot at us because we were different. That's a plus." He smirked, or at least that's what it looked like.

As the crew bickered, Liara weighed up the possibilities in her head. This Republic obviously wanted to help, but so soon after escaping the Reapers she doubted whether anyone would enter into another war that could be as difficult as the last. "I think we should go with them." The rest of the crew toned down as Liara spoke up. "I will have to research them, but I believe they could do good for us and we could do good for them."


	7. The Blockade

**_And here's the other chapter that was supposed to be out 2 days ago, but noooo my timetable said otherwise. Oh well, I'll try not to screw up again, but it's likely this will happen again._**

 _The Leviathan_ stood at the head of the Sith fleet around Taris, since the battle the fleet had grown significantly. This Sith capital ship was impressive in it's own way, hundreds of turbolaser cannons, 60 squads of Sith fighters and a garrison of over 4'000 troops – this truly was the head of the Sith fleet. Admiral Saul Karath stood at the bridge, staring over his fleet, it truly was a sight to behold. Suddenly a flash was spotted on the planet's surface, a squadron of ships thought they could outrun the Sith fleet. Karath simply did nothing, as the ships left the planet's atmosphere and came in range of the guns, Karath continued to watch their pointless struggle, as they were in the median range of the auto guns he gave the order and the turrets began firing. Every single ship in the entire fleet began firing it's autolasers, a barrage of death caught up with the ships as each one was engulfed in explosions, their hulls tearing apart like wet tissue paper. In a matter of minutes, there was nothing but a debris field.

The door to the bridge opened up and a tall figure entered, he seemed to pulsate dark side energy and everything around him shivered slightly as he entered. Without regarding the guard, the figure waltzed past everything on the bridge until he was stood directly behind the Admiral. He wore a jaw brace, likely covering a wound. His skin had turned a sickly grey colour that permeated the air around him

"Lord Malak." Karath turned around and knelt down in front of his leader.

"You may dispense with the formalities, Admiral. I trust that the blockade has been successful?" Malak asked with an air of superiority, Karath stood to address his master.

"Yes, Lord Malak. No ship has been able to breach our defences. The planet is contained." The admiral replied with a clinical sense of urgency, almost waiting for Malak to leave.

"Good. What of Bastila? How is the search coming along?" Malak asked while squinting his eyes which caused the admiral to visibly shudder.

"We have followed up on some leads, however some have been false. Evidence has pointed to the planet's gangs, however they are currently engaged in a bloody gang war that is hindering our efforts considerably." Admiral Karath replied almost gulping, recently an officer suffered at the mercy of Malak himself for committing a minor offence.

"Do not take too long. I want her alive, but I will take drastic action if necessary. Do not fail me, Admiral." Malak replied while scolding his subordinate, but Karath had proved himself a formidable ally, his part in the bombing of Telos was impressive and had brought the Republic to it's knees.

"Y- yes, Lord Malak. I will begin an operation to silence the gangs and bring Bastila to you, alive." Admiral Karath backed up and replied to Lord Malak, his presence was making the Admiral much less comfortable.

"Good. Now tell me what you have discovered about our surprise guests."


	8. The upper city

"Heh, yeah that's just Taris. Wait till you see Coruscant." Carth replied while his companion continued to stare in awe at the display around her. She had moved ahead of him and was looking around like a toddler who had just learned to walk.

"It... It's beautiful." Tali replied generously, she had a very calmed but awed tone and she had a wide grin on her face. Quickly she looked over to her companion and she decided now was not the time to stand in awe at the sights, she turned back to him. "Right... sorry. Lets get back to finding your friend. Where should we start looking?"

"Well we should probably try getting to the lower city first," Carth said, moving ahead of Tali into the centre square. "Although we should probably have a look around, try and make a few friends. We're stuck here, and just you and me haven't got enough fire power to take the Sith head on. Try not to draw unnecessary attention."

Tali nodded, "Then let's go. You lead the way."

The two continued into the square, passing by an escape pod that had been embedded into the ground because of the crash. Carth looked visibly disturbed by the sight of the crash, it only took a second for Tali to realise that it was the pod that Carth had crashed in. As they walked past the scorch marks, Carth started to ease up and Tali wanted to know a little about the man who had rescued her.

"So... Carth. You never did tell me how you rescued me?" Tali inquired.

Carth turned around and leaned against a nearby wall, "I guess I didn't. The short version is that I saw your shuttle crash after I crawled out of the pod, I ran up to it and pulled you out of the wreckage before stumbling into that apartment."

"But... there were two Alliance Marines with me. What happened to them?" Tali quickly asked after Carth had finished speaking.

"Marines..?" Carth moved forwards and crossed his arms "I didn't see anyone else before I left, any longer and the Sith would have been on top of us." he shrugged

"Oh..." Tali put her hand up to her faceplate "Those Sith have probably already got them."

"I wouldn't want to get captured by the Sith. They say the force can do terrible things to the mind, they can wipe away your very identity." Carth said putting his hand on Tali's shoulder. "If the Sith get their hands on Bastila, it could mean the end of the war."

"Okay. Lets get moving." She relented and turned around. Carth put his hands down and waited a second before continuing on.

The two continued on their way and eventually made their way to one of the entrances to the lower city, however it was being guarded by a contingent of Sith soldiers.

"Damn it." Carth uttered after seeing the troopers at the door. "They won't let us past under any circumstances."

"Why don't we just dispatch them right now." Tali asked while laying her fingers on her pistol.

"No, that would alert every trooper in the area. We need to find another way down." Carth held his forehead in thought, trying his hardest to see a way past this. "The only other way we could past is if we made them believe we were Sith or working for them."

"So... we try and get some uniforms? Or identification?" Tali asked putting her hands by her sides away from her weapons.

"That's the idea, but where will we find that without 'disposing' of one them." Carth asked himself. "Let's just walk around some more, try to get our bearings."

Tali nodded and the two left and headed back the way they came, they accidentally stumbled into another apartment block whereby they watched a War Droid and a Sith officer break into someone's apartment and attack the tenants. Tali almost drew her weapon on them, but Carth stopped her.

"We can't just let this happen!" Tali whispered to Carth as she gripped her shotgun.

"Wait." Carth said, analysing the situation in his head. "Okay, we can do this. You try to get their attention, I'll throw a grenade in and-" As Carth was talking he failed to notice that Tali had hacked one of the war droid's behaviour cores.

"What are you doing you stupid droid?! Terminate them!" The officer shouted while the droid turned and stared at him.

[TARGET ACQIRED]

[IDENTITY: SITH]

[THREAT LEVEL: MINIMAL]

[WEAPON LOCKS DISENGAGED, FIRING]

"Wha-?" Before the officer could even form a coherent sentence the droid opened fire and poked multiple holes through his body with its rifle. The droid stopped firing once it received no life signs from the corpse. After the target was dead, Tali disengaged her hacking interface and the droid powered down.

Carth could only look on in amazement while the droid turned on it's own officer just because Tali hit a few buttons. "Wow..." Carth muttered while staring in awe at her. Tali noticed and recoiled slightly while she closed down her omni-tool. "Uhh... let's go... go check out that body." Carth blubbered, he must have looked like an idiot with the way he was staring, he couldn't see under her helmet but Carth could have sworn she blushed under there.

The two entered the apartment to find a couple cowering in the corner behind the now disable droid, they were quivering and when they saw Carth and Tali enter they started to whimper. "Please, take whatever you want. Just don't hurt my family!" The husband shouted at Carth as he tried to help.

"No you don't understand! We're here to help." Carth said trying to dissuade the couple who obviously didn't believe him. The way both he and Tali were wearing combat armour obviously didn't look good.

"Just take what you want and get out!" The husband said again and Carth backed off with his hands up to show he wouldn't hurt them.

Carth went over to the body of the officer to check him out, "Tali, watch the door." Tali nodded and stood by the door with her weapon drawn. Carth searched the body until he found what he wanted, a datapad with high level security clearance that could get them down to the lower city. "Hey! I found a datapad with clearance!" Carth said triumphantly

"Wouldn't the soldiers at the checkpoint not recognize us as Sith?" Tali asked while slightly turning from her watch.

"Sith soldiers rarely get involved with internal affairs, it's usually catastrophic for them to speak out against their superiors." Carth said while putting the datapad in his pocket. Just then a Sith soldier turned the corner.

"Sir! Are you done in there?" The soldier shouted at the apartment door. Without receiving a response he turned the corner to see his commander on the floor dead with two people staring at the door. "Oh shi-" Was all the soldier could say before Carth and Tali opened fire on him. The soldier fell to the floor dead, his metal armour hitting the floor with a thud.

The couple looked on in horror, they were definitely dead or worse if the Sith found the bodies in their apartment. The couple relented and got up and left the apartment in a hurry not looking back, they pushed past Tali and Carth aggressively. Once they were out of sight, both Tali and Carth went back into the corridor.

"That went... well." Tali uttered, frowning underneath her mask. She was more upset that the Sith had free reign over everything and nobody was pushing back.

"Come on, let's keep moving." Carth said, pulling the datapad out and taking a look, "Now all we to do is- damn it!"

"What's wrong?" Tali asked moving closer and taking the datapad from him.

"The pad is keyed with the officers DNA and medical status, it knows he's dead and locked itself down to prevent us from using it." Carth said, defeated as he leaned against a nearby wall. "Only a skilled hacker or technician could bypass it..." Carth thought for a moment, thinking back to how Tali hacked that droid remotely. "Do you think you could bypass it?"

"Well... I might be able to, but it would take time and I would need some of your DNA." Tali said turning back to Carth. "Anywhere nearby where I could make the necessary adjustments."

"I have a place in mind."


	9. No moral obligations

**_Just quickly before I get into the next chapter, just going to address some comments outlined in reviews:_**

 ** _I have tweaked the canon for both universes a little just to make things easier from a narrative perspective so everyone can understand each other, their tech is just different. Tali can interface with a droids OS because she has studied the tech, that's why she analysed that destroyed droid arm from earlier._**

 ** _The arrival of the Sleeper Fleet caused different things to happen, that's why Revan isn't with Carth on Taris. Revan is still going to be in this fanfiction he just won't be a big player till later on in the story, I'm focusing more on Tali as the main protagonist as opposed to Revan._**

 ** _Anyway, another short one here. The shorter chapters work better for chapters involving just one or two major villians like Karath or Malak, I'm trying to mimic the same scenes from the game as they are only a few minutes long anyway._**

Deep within the bowels of the _Leviathan,_ horrifying experiments took place. Republic prisoners were subject to numerous weapon tests and medical tests. Captured Jedi were taken somewhere completely different to be corrupted and finally turned to the Dark side. However the labs did not hold Republic prisoners today, they held something that the Sith had never seen before, strange aliens dependant on artificial environments to stay alive. Over one hundred of these aliens had been captured and were being experimented on while a few were being personally 'interrogated' by the dark lord Malak himself.

Saul Karath walked these hallways examining the work before him. The Sith scientists had no mercy or moral obligations, they did not flinch when they forcefully removed the masks of Quarian children and subjected them to harmful gases in order to find their stress limits. Karath walked by bodies being dissected and experimented on. Quarians lay naked on platforms while Sith scientists prodded and poked them, their whimpering voices and pleas were ignored. The rest of the Quarians were being held on the ships detention level, unaware of the fate that awaited them, every now and then one would be taken forcefully while the parents or friends did their best to stop the faceless soldiers. Saul Karath watched all of this unfold with a smirk on his face, he was no longer human the Dark side had completely corrupted him.

Karath approached what must have been the head scientist, he turned around and saluted his superior. "Admiral! We are making progress in determining the origin of these aliens."

"What have you discovered?" Karath uttered, his smirk not faltering.

"These beings have extremely weak immune systems, they are forced to live confined within envirosuits for their whole lives. If they so much as crack their helmets they could die within hours." The scientist replied while pulling up a holographic chart and a datapad with necessary measurements. "Biologically, they are not that different to Humans, the main difference being that their legs and bone structure are constructed differently."

The admiral's smirk disappeared while he examined the corpse of a nearby Quarian. "Do you need any more of these... things?"

"No, we have all the specimens we need right here. What do you have in mind for the rest? Termination?" The scientist quickly asked.

"No." Something even more devious came across the corrupted admiral's mind. "Leave them with me, I'm sure that Lord Malak will have something special planned for them. Separate the children from the adults." The admiral cackled to himself silently as he left the lab.

"Yes sir." The scientist said as the admiral left, he quickly made the necessary announcements. All specimens would be archived for further use, while any subjects would be terminated. A team of soldiers entered the room and began rounding up any living subjects, they were lifted, pushed and dragged to a nearby wall covered in scorch marks. A squad of Sith soldiers stood in front of them and aimed their weapons, a torrent of flames hit the prisoners with fury, Karath smirked as the door closed behind him and their screams dissipated as the elevator ascended.


	10. The Lower City Part I

The upper city Cantina was flush with energy, lots of people were drinking, dancing and enjoying themselves (although Carth suspected that most were just trying to forget about the quarantine). Tali was amazed, the place reminded her of Afterlife on Omega. The music thumped loudly and could be heard from outside, there was nowhere quiet inside, but it would have to do. They did have a little trouble on the door but they soon got in, once inside Carth found them a nice secluded table in the back of the Cantina, near the Duelling ring. Once they had sat down, Carth went to go get some drinks and hunt for information while Tali sat at the table and worked on hacking through the datapad's fail-safe.

As Tali worked on the technology she came to realise that her own technology wasn't that different from this new technology, their weapons were vastly superior than anything Tali had found in her galaxy, but most of their other tech was only slightly better or almost the same. She cross referenced her own datapad versus the Sith one and their construction was very similar, the difference being that the Sith datapad held far more storage space as opposed to her datapad. Before long, Carth came back with a drink for himself and sat down at the table. Tali looked up to acknowledge his arrival but she quickly returned to her work.

"So..." Carth began, taking a sip from his drink, "You haven't really told me why you left your galaxy."

Tali looked up, she wasn't willing to divulge in everything he wanted to know, she certainly wouldn't mention Shepard but to be fair he had saved her life so he deserved to know some of the details. "Well... like I said there was a war. A race of synthetics called the Reapers attacked, they were extremely advanced and most of the major council home worlds were devastated fairly quickly." Tali put the datapad back together and set it down on the table. "The remaining fleets all banded together on a final battle with the Reapers, we failed and fled the galaxy in order to preserve our own lives." Tali held back tears as she began remembering what had caused her to leave the only one she loved.

"That's awful..." Carth leaned forward and put his hands on the table, "I can't imagine what you're going through." He bowed his head but quickly raised it, "So you fled the galaxy, are you sure that these Reapers didn't follow you?"

"No. We made sure that they couldn't follow us by destroying the mass relay, if they did want to follow us they would go through dark space, but it could take hundreds of years for them to get here." Tali replied adamantly, she had done everything possible to get away from the Reapers and she wanted to believe that she would never see them again, but part of her feared that she would.

"If the Sith somehow managed to get control of that technology, we probably wouldn't live too long to see how it would end." Carth uttered leaning back into his chair while taking a large drink.

Tali shuddered, imagining a Sith-Reaper alliance. The Sith seemed bad enough but adding the Reapers would make them unstoppable. "Anyway, I've keyed the datapad to you and given you a fake name in case they recognize it. They should let us through without any problems, just tell them that I'm your associate or something."

Carth looked up in triumph. "Good work! You're really talented, if you weren't here then I would not have even made it out of the apartment ring." Carth smiled and although he couldn't see it, he knew that Tali had smiled too. The glowing orbs of her eyes looked on at Carth while he thanked and congratulated her. He reached out and grabbed the datapad from her while looking over it and admiring her handiwork. "Huh, this should fool those guards. Come on let's get going." Carth left his drink half full as the two of them left the cantina, but all this time they were being watched from very close by.

* * *

Carth and Tali cautiously approached the Sith checkpoint, there were less troops there so it would be easier, that didn't mean they could relax. Tali was rigid and kept her hands near her weapons, Carth held the datapad in his left hand, his right hand close to his holster. As they approached one of the soldiers looked up at them.

"Halt civilian. The lower city elevator is off limits." The trooper said without any hesitation, his voice perfectly obscured by the built in vocoder.

"I- We have authorization." Carth stuttered as he handed the datapad over to the trooper. The soldier snatched it out of his hands and started to look over it.

"Uhuh. And what exactly is your business." The soldier quickly asked, clearly doubting him, still looking over the datapad until he noticed the rank next to Carth's fake name "Excuse me sir! I apologize for the inconvenience! You may pass." The soldier stood to attention and saluted.

"Uh... I am on an urgent mission down there!" Carth shouted, trying to intimidate the guard so that he thought twice about stopping them again. "You stopping me may have cost me too much time!" Carth leaned in to the soldier, Tali watched on from behind with her hands on her hips making an intimidating pose.

"Y- yes sir! Sorry sir!" The soldier stood to the side and punched in a password on a keypad beside the door. The elevator arrived and the doors slid open, both Carth and Tali stepped inside.

Before the door could close Tali said to the soldier: "Do not stop us again..." The soldier flinched, he had heard of what happened to soldiers who did not follow orders and he clearly didn't want that to happen to him.

Tali and Carth were both holding back laughter as the elevator descended, they both let loose and laughed at the expense of the scared trooper. "These Sith may look tough, but when it comes to officers they get down on their knees." Carth chuckled while Tali nodded and shook with laughter.

As the elevator stopped, the doors slid open and they were greeted by a squad of mercenaries aiming their weapons at them. Tali and Carth froze, both instinctively putting their hands up, the mercs shuffled slightly obviously expecting Sith. They weren't heavily armoured, and they weren't particularly uniform, they each had different armour and different weapons. Suddenly there was a shout and each of the mercs lowered their weapons, an older merc pushed through the squad and looked at the newcomers.

"Well... you're obviously not Sith. Just who are you then?" The merc asked while lowering his weapon but keeping it within arms reach.

"Uh... we managed to get past the Sith patrol, we're down here looking for someone." Carth replied slowly, clearly mistrustful of the mercenaries. He knew that both he and Tali could take care of them if they needed to.

"Uhuh." The merc turned around and addressed the squad behind him, for a second both Carth and Tali were scared that the mercs were about to open fire, "They're clear guys, let em' pass!" The merc said. "Come with me, I'll take you somewhere safer." He motioned for the two to follow him with a wide grin on his face.

Both Carth and Tali obliged, afraid of what might happen if they didn't agree to go with him. "So uh... who are you?" Carth asked cautiously just as they moved away from the squad who turned their attention back to the elevator.

"Hm...? Oh I'm from the Hidden Beks, we're your friendly swoop biker gang to protect you." The squad leader replied with a smile, seemingly out of nowhere there was an explosion and screams heard behind them, the squad leader turned around with his weapon out to see his squad completely decimated, one of the gang members crawling towards him with severe burns before a strange alien turned the corner and shot him.

At this point all three of them had equipped their weapons and were waiting, the alien then looked up and shouted in a language Tali couldn't understand before a smaller squad of different aliens came around to back him up. Carth, Tali and the Bek leader all dived into cover before any shooting could start. The Bek member shouted at the new gang members "Black Vulkar scum!" Before diving out of cover and riddling the first gang member with shots. Tali looked on as the shooting started, pulses flying past her, she peeked around clutching her pistol and watched one of the Black Vulkars step out of cover for a split second, Tali jumped up and fired multiple rounds into him with her pistol, her attention was turned when a bolt of energy exploded on her kinetic barrier forcing her into cover.

Carth had managed to snag one of the Vulkars right in the head with a well placed shot, now only 2 of them remained. The Bek leader peaked over and saw the 2 Vulkars next to each other, he lobbed a grenade at them, forcing one to run out into the open only to be shot and killed by Tali, while the other was pounded by shrapnel as the grenade exploded less than one meter away from him. With the enemy combatants dead, the three of them exited cover only for the gang member to smirk at his new friends. "Well I wasn't expecting to see that out of civilians, something tells me you aren't just normal civilians." The gang member replied, eyeing the strange anatomy of Tali and the fact she was wearing a suit. "Yes."

Tali and Carth were slowly recovering from the fight, Tali lifting Carth up from the ground and putting her hand on his shoulder. Carth quickly turned to the gang member, a smile on the corner of his mouth, "I wasn't really expecting to see that kind of skill from just a simple gang member." Carth replied as his smile was forming.

"Hm... well, you're certainly more interesting to me now. You say you're looking for someone? My boss could help out, he's the leader of the Beks and a well respected man." The gang member replied with a smirk on his face.

Carth and Tali glanced at each other, this guy could clearly hold his own in a fight and he seemed friendly enough, he may be able to help them out. "Sure... but what's the catch?" Tali quickly asked

"No catch, I'm sure he would like to meet you too. Just follow me and I'll lead you there, hopefully we won't run into more trouble." The gang member replied turning around and gesturing for them to follow.

"What do we call you." Carth asked, causing the gang member to stop and turn his head.

"Just call me Nick."


	11. I understand now

The crew of the Normandy took a while to shift to the new experience of hyperspace travel, it was much faster than FTL speeds and a little faster than a mass relay jump. All the while the crew sat in their designated quarters aboard the ship, things were tense but it didn't seem like this new civilisation would be a threat to them.

Joker was having a conversation with a Republic engineer about the specs of the cruiser and how they could land without the use of eezo cores and mass effect fields. It turns out that the technology in this galaxy was actually very similar to the citadel galaxy, the travel here was based around a concept first drummed up by human scientists. The first hyperdrive was 3 times the size of an average drive core and carried even more power, human scientists created the first vessel utilizing this technology in 2172 under an alliance research vessel called _Prospekt,_ unfortunately the vessel was lost, presumed destroyed and the research from this project was swept away and forgotten about, bits of it were unearthed for the Crucible but nothing major. The Republic engineer explained that the vessel was probably still around, they just misjudged the power and catapulted themselves far into another galaxy possibly even this one.

Suddenly, Admiral Dodonna entered the room and all Republic personnel saluted her before being dismissed.

"Hello again, we will be reaching the core worlds within a few hours. Once we reach them we will finish repairing the ships in your fleet. I have spoken with the other captains and we will talk in more detail when we arrive." The admiral said quickly, and with a nervous undertone. She sighed while bowing her head slightly.

"So... what do you want from us?" Joker spoke up, breaking the silence.

"I'm not going to lie to you." The admiral started. "But you saw how powerful the Sith were back there, we need all the help we can get and..." The admiral stopped for a second, deciding to choose her words carefully. "...you're a rogue element and you could help us defeat them. I'm going to give you time, and we will understand if you don't want to help us, but in our rescue we lost many important assets for the war and we need all the help we can get." The admiral quickly said, not letting any of the crew get a word in.

Liara was the first to speak up, she recognised the admiral's plea and even though they had just left another war she wasn't about to let another civilisation be destroyed. "No." Liara said, stopping the admiral before she could leave. "We left our galaxy fleeing a different war that we couldn't win." The admiral didn't like where this was going. Liara continued "We are battered and defeated. But, we will not stand by and let you be destroyed like we could have been." The rest of the crew stood firmly, agreeing with Liara

Garrus spoke ahead of Liara "The Reapers almost destroyed us. We came here for refuge, but if we don't help you we may not survive anyway."

"The probability that you will succeed without our help is low." EDI interjected "But the probability that we will survive should these 'Sith' win, is almost zero." Forn didn't know if that was a yes or no but it sounded good.

"Well if you're going to rebuild the Normandy, you'll need a pilot." Joker spoke up giving the rest of the crew the confidence to agree. More and more of the crew stood and replied with a triumphant 'yes we will help!' or a simple 'Fine'.

A smile crept onto Dodonna's face as each of the Normandy crew stood and pledged to help. "You... you don't understand how much this will help!" She firmly stood saluting them "Welcome to the Galactic Republic! Once we arrive at Coruscant I will make the necessary preparations and we will assign you to sectors." Dodonna turned and walked out of the room.

Before Dodonna could leave however, Liara stopped her. "Wait Admiral." The young admiral turned and the Republic soldiers watched cautiously. "I need to show you... what happened."

"How?" Dodonna queried, any new information about their 'guests' was welcome.

"I can open my mind to you and you will be able to see my memories." Liara said, drawing closer to the admiral. "It is not something regularly done, but I think you must see what we faced."

The admiral was dubious, but she was sure that if they intended to cause any harm they would have done so already. "Alright, what do I do?"

Liara approached without saying anything and held Dodonna's arms, she stared deeply into her eyes. "Relax." She whispered "and embrace eternity!" Liara cried as she opened the meld allowing the admiral to see her memories and for Liara to see Dodonna's.

 _The Citadel, giant and mysterious. A fleet of Geth headed by Sovereign. Suddenly, chaos, thousands dead in minutes. The Citadel badly damaged. Fear, horror, excitement._

 _Mother lying dead, sadness, crying. Had to be done, she was indoctrinated, wanted to be killed. "Goodbye Mother."_

 _Being chased down a vent. Heavily armoured troops closing behind. Saved by a human male, heavy armour adorned with 'N7'. Relief, confusion, happiness."Shepard!"_

 _Rannoch, Quarian home world. Geth everywhere, a Reaper! Towering, destructive, chasing them. The Reaper is destroyed, Tali embraces Shepard._

 _Thessia burning, hatred, anger. Asari lie dead everywhere. Reapers destroying everything, will do whatever it takes._

 _The final battle. Thousands gathered, all dead. Citadel captured by Reapers. "Stand Fast. Stand Strong. Stand Together."_

 _Earth, meters before the citadel beam, holding Tali. Watching Shepard run into the beam. The Normandy takes off. Sadness, want to cry._

* * *

 _Training day, simulation of real battle. Congratulation, proudest day of life. Promotion: Captain of the Vision._

 _Mandalorians, hundreds of cruisers. Basilisk War droids, millions dead in hours. Anger, want to destroy whole fleet._

 _Dxun, height of the war. Thousands of warships, battle on the planet surface. "Revan, where are you?!" Huge explosion, knocked out._

 _Malachor V, final battle. Mass Shadow Generator, billions killed – enemy and ally. Had to be done, Mandalorians would destroy Republic. Knew it was a mistake._

 _Promotion: Admiral of the fleet. Huge ceremony, reports of attack. Telos in flames, Sith forces retreating. Home world burning, friends and family all dead. Karath will pay._

 _Revan and Malak returned, Sith. Betrayed, massive blow to the fleet, hundreds of ships lost. Losing since the start. "We need a solution."_

Dodonna opened her eyes and understood, Liara stared back and understood. They both had suffered greatly and Liara finally understood the horrors in this galaxy, as Dodonna finally knew what the Reapers truly were. Liara let go and stepped back, the Republic soldiers had their weapons drawn but the admiral waved them down.

"Doctor T'soni." The admiral said.

"Admiral Doddonna." Liara replied

They continued to look at each other for a few minutes more. Before the Admiral stood straight and saluted. "Thank you. I understand now."

Liara nodded and countered her "I understand as well."

Dodonna turned and left, as the door slid shut behind her, she felt renewed like a different person.


	12. The Lower City Part II

_**I'd like to take a quick moment to thank all my readers for all the favourites and follows that I have gained so far, It's definitely a great feeling to see that people do genuinely like this story. Even if I didn't have any faves or follows I would probably still write this anyway, but I didn't realise just how good it makes me feel to have such positivity.**_

 _ **I would also like to do a 'poll' of sorts: I've really started to dislike the name I came up with this story, it really was a poor afterthought; so what I want is people to suggest a more Mass Effect and KoToR-esque name for the story because currently, I think, the name is a bit too uninspired**_

 _ **On with the chapter!**_

Nick led both Carth and Tali through the lower city up to a rundown part of the city with a destroyed door, at least it looked that way until Nick whispered something into the control panel. At that point, the door seemingly repaired itself and it slid open cautiously. It revealed a dark passageway with a single light illuminating a door at the end, Nick shut the door as Carth and Tali followed him in.

"Watch your step, follow my exact moves." Nick turned around motioning for them to follow, he began moving very slowly down the passageway, taking random turns and making small hops. Tali and Carth followed cautiously, mimicking Nick's steps very carefully. Once they made it to the end, Tali turned around and was surprised to see that the door they came in on was actually quite far away.

"What was all that about?" Carth asked, while Nick was working on the door.

"Hm..." Nick turned around as the door slid open revealing a much brighter hallway, "That was the back door, laid out with traps so any Vulkars who think they're smart will fall for hours." He smirked at the thought.

Tali looked back the way they came before entering the base behind Nick. As they walked down the steel hallway, Tali and Carth glanced at each other in thought. Neither said anything, but their thoughts remained the same: how could they benefit from this?

Nick led them into a large hall that had lots of people walking around or huddled in small groups, most of them were armed and armoured. Tali and Carth were met with strange looks as they walked towards a desk. Tali recognised the humans, but the aliens with strange appendages intrigued her, she knew Liara would love to study them. She was lost in thought for a second as she thought about Liara and the rest of the crew, she hoped that they were all okay, but she was wondering whether they were thinking about her. She suddenly felt glad about having Carth around, he was a nice guy and he could have easily passed her by and left her to the Sith. Carth intrigued Tali because he seemed so secretive, having lived inside a suit her whole life, Tali had learned to read expressions and movements. Carth's movements indicated to Tali that he carried a heavy burden and that he obviously has some secrets to tell. Nick was a different story: he walked with pride but he seemed scared or fearful, Tali could not tell what of, but it was there. It didn't matter time was not on their side so Tali quickly returned her thoughts back to the task.

Nick strolled up to the desk in an orderly manner, the man behind the desk was clad in very heavy battle armour and he had a large rifle slung on his back. His face had it's share of scars but his eyes were particularly interesting. They were grey in colour and he hardly moved them at all, Carth speculated that he may have lost his sight and have implants to allow him to see, but he didn't want to ask. Beside the man was another one of those aliens that intrigued Tali, she was a very light colour and wore armour that was silver in colour, she had her back turned and was working on a terminal. In her right hand was a pistol of unique design, there was something engraved on the side but Tali could not make it out. The alien clutched it tightly, as if expecting a firefight to erupt at any moment.

"Gadon." Nick said while the man turned around, his eyes twitched for a second before focusing on Nick

"Nick." Gadon affirmed, "I can see two more people with you, have you brought guests?" As he said this the Twi'lek turned around and upon seeing the newcomers she drew her pistol.

"Nick!" The Twi'lek shouted "How could you bring in strangers, they could be working for the Vulkars or worse... the Sith." She held her pistol tightly, training it on Tali who held her hands in the air.

"Calm down Zaerdra!" Gadon said, "I'm sure Nick has an explanation for bringing them in." He turned to Nick and his companions, Zaerdra lowered her weapon "Go on, tell us what you know."

"Well they are not Vulkars, we were attacked when I met them, everyone in the squad died." Nick said bowing his head in respect

"Damn..." Gadon said, bowing his head in honour of the fallen.

"But, as they attacked these two helped me take em' out." He gestured to Tali and Carth behind him "I figured I owed them, they said they were looking for someone maybe you can help?"

"Hm..." Gadon pondered for a second, looking over at the two strangers before him. "Tell us who you are, we should be able to help you out."

Carth spoke up before Tali could even open her mouth. "I'm Carth, this is Tali." He pointed at Tali who was standing slightly behind him. "We're looking for someone who crashed in the undercity."

"Ah, I suspected as much." Gadon said with a smile "Anybody as well equipped as you two would likely want to know, let me guess: you were both in an escape pod?" Gadon asked. Carth simply nodded with a little hesitation. "It's fine, we'll keep it secret. We're not like the Vulkars or the Sith, they would sell you out."

"Glad we didn't run into them then." Tali said quietly, barely escaping her mask.

"Well I'll help you out, whatever information you need I'll give you access to." Gadon replied, his smile widening.

Zaerdra quickly interrupted "Gadon. Are you sure we can trust them? They're still strangers and they could easily betray us."

"Anyone who helps out my best man is a friend of mine." Gadon said turning back to Zaerdra, Nick had shuffled sideways to give Tali and Carth full attention. "So what do you need to know?"

"We're looking for a... Jedi Knight, it is absolutely vital that she is not captured by the Sith." Carth quickly said, hesitating before mentioning exactly what Bastila was, but he thought he could trust them.

"Hm." Gadon quickly replied, furrowing his brow while thinking quietly to himself. "When the pods crashed I sent a team to see if they could retrieve any survivors so we could help them out. Unfortunately, the Vulkars got there first and started tearing one of the pods apart, there was a firefight, during the fight my men reported seeing a woman being dragged away by the Vulkar forces." Gadon shuffled forward slightly.

"Damn." Carth muttered to himself.

"You are right to worry, the Vulkars are likely going to sell her off to the slave trade. However, it is likely they don't know who she is, otherwise they would have handed her over to the Sith without hesitation." Gadon said noticing the worried look on Carth's face, however he remained suspicious of Tali because he could not see her face.

At the mention of the slave trade, Tali was quickly thrown back in and felt the need to ask. "Slave trade! You mean slaves are still used in your- I mean in the galaxy?" She almost blew her cover, they likely wouldn't believe her if she told them who she was.

"Yeah, it's brutal. We would never use or buy slaves." Nick stated firmly gesturing with his hands.

"Wait!" Gadon quickly said, "I believe that Brejik is going to offer up Bastila as the prize for this years swoop tournament." He stated firmly trying to reassure them.

"How does that help us?" Carth asked, slightly concerned.

"I could sponsor you as a rider for the Beks, if you win the tournament then you win Bastila and you can free her." Gadon said triumphantly

"Hm, that could actually work." Carth said bringing his hand up to his chin. "But, wait a second. Who is Brejik."

Zaerdra quickly spoke up over Carth. "Brejik used to be Gadon's second in command, he recently left to go and lead the Vulkars. He started this war along with it." The Twi'lek stated coldly

"He's a sick, twisted man." Nick added after Zaerdra had finished speaking.

"Why don't we just raid their base for Bastila?" Tali unexpectedly said in the middle of the conversation.

"Brejik has probably got her locked up somewhere secret in preparation for the race." Gadon said affirming Tali's suspicions.

"Then let's get the tournament started!" Carth said impatiently.

"Hold it." Gadon held his arm up to stop them. "Recently our engineers created a prototype swoop engine that is faster than any normal engine, but it was stolen by the Vulkars as we were trying to move it here. You'll need that engine to win the race, it's your best chance." He put his arm down and rested them at his sides.

"It's never easy, is it?" Tali said after Gadon had finished speaking.

"We believe that it is currently in a nearby base preparing to be moved elsewhere, now is the time to get it." Gadon said, rallying the two.

"Then let's go-" Carth said while turning away.

"Hang on." Gadon interrupted Carth "You'll need a way in, if you charge in the front door you'll just get shot on site, you'll need to go in through a secret entrance."

"Oh yeah? And where's that then?" Carth was growing impatient, he crossed his arms.

"There's an entrance to in the sewers, a Twi'lek by the name of Mission Vao will help you." Gadon said, maintaining his calm demeanour.

"Mission, Gadon? She's just a kid!" Zaerdra interjected with slight anger in her voice.

"That may be, but she's the only person that knows the undercity inside out. If anyone can help you it's her." Gadon said, stopping Zaerdra.

"Where can we find this 'Mission'?" Carth asked, putting his hands by his side, his legs started to cramp after standing for so long. He shuffled around, to stop the cramps.

"She's usually exploring the undercity sewers with her Wookiee partner, Zaalbaar. However that has it's own set of problems." Gadon could sense the impatience on Carth's face and although he couldn't see it, he knew Tali was growing impatient as well. "The Sith set up a checkpoint, you'll need the proper security papers to get past."

"We have documents, that's how we got down here in the first place!" Tali quickly said as Carth pulled out the datapad with the information on it.

"Let me see..." Gadon took the datapad in his hands, he held it closer to his face so that he could see it clearer, the implants hadn't fully restored his vision, but it was good enough. "No... these won't get you through the checkpoint, luckily we have a pass to get into the undercity, we can trade you these documents for them." Gadon held the datapad down.

"Well, if it will get us closer to Bastila, we shouldn't waste time." Tali said hopefully, her voice sounded more serious than usual.

"Good. Zaerdra, get them the pass." Gadon said, turning back to his bodyguard, Zaerdra handed the pass to Carth but eyed him suspiciously. "You three should get going. Bring the accelerator back here and then we can enter the tournament."

"Three..?" Nick asked, bewildered at the statement.

"Yes. Nick, I want you to go with them, you know the lower city well and you can help them out." Gadon said as he turned to Carth and Tali "Good luck, I hope to see you later in one piece." Gadon said cheerfully as the three left, he had no doubt that they would come through for him.

"That went well." Tali said as they left through the main entrance, to their right was a lookout for the Beks who looked over with a scowl.

"Come on, the elevator to the undercity is this way." Nick stated while pointing to their right, "The Vulkars pretty much own this area, if we tread carefully we'll get through." He added as he started to move. Carth and Tali followed as they ran off into the dark with their weapons drawn.


	13. Reinstatement

The core worlds, the centre of government for the Republic. An array of worlds that each had their own beauty and elegance, ships came and went and cities reached into the sky and were visible from space. However, a little ways from the core lay a large space station, the station was surrounded with hundreds, if not thousands of Republic ships awaiting repair or restock only to be fired back into the battlefield. This was the first line of defence against any threat to the Republic. Suddenly a fleet of ships jumped in, the Normandy among them. They approached the station and docked, the Sleeper Fleet followed suit.

Aboard the station there was a lot of confusion, new and foreign ships had been sighted. Many claimed they were working for the Sith, others claimed that they could help defeat the Sith. The only thing the common soldier knew was that the top brass must have a good reason for it, they would find out soon enough.

As soon as they had docked with the station, Dodonna assembled the crew of the Normandy and told them that they must stay on the ship until she said so, it would be far too jarring for the Republic if they were introduced immediately. She was, however about to meet with the other commanding officers of the Republic Navy, Marines and Infantry in order to reach a summit with them about what would be done, after that Dodonna needed a diplomat from each of the milky way races in order to further diplomatic relations and welcome them to the Republic.

"Well this sucks." Joker remarked as Dodonna left the ship, they had been given access to the whole ship except the Normandy until repairs had been made.

"Really?" Garrus replied sarcastically, "This is a pretty bad situation now that you mention it." Garrus added, holding his sarcastic tone.

"Woah, Garrus. A bit touchy are we?" Joker sneered while shooting a look at Garrus who frowned back at him.

"She gave us free reign of her ship, maybe we should have a look around?" James spoke up from behind them, "Maybe we can find some things out."

"That could work." Liara said standing up straight, "There may be something we can find out about this galaxy, and information would be useful right about now.

Just then, the airlock nearby opened and out came Shala'Raan, Primark Victus and Samara. They walked to the Normandy crew and regarded them with nods, they stood in front of the crew, their heads bowed.

Joker looked up at them, they seemed troubled. "Hey, what's going on?" He asked while sitting up straighter.

"We've talked to their admiral." Raan said, "She told us that you have volunteered to help in their fight against these 'Sith'." She added sincerely.

"And...?" Garrus questioned impatiently.

"Well, they wanted us to help, but we can't enter another war against an enemy that could be worse than the Reapers." Victus spoke up, finishing for Raan.

"Understandable." EDI said coldly,

"But, the admiral wants to set up a temporary gathering from the races we brought so they can learn more about us and where we came from." Victus continued. "She wants an ambassador from each race." Victus finished, putting his arms behind his back.

"We've volunteered to join this 'gathering', however we need a diplomat for humanity and the Salarians." Raan replied, moving closer to the group.

"Well, we can find someone for humanity, but I'm not sure about the Salarians." Liara replied getting the attention of the group. "Any volunteers?"

Ashley stood up, she had been a little vocal against entering another war. "Look, I don't want this galaxy to be conquered, but I'm not sure if I can take going to war. I might be better off giving tactical advice from safety." She said while turning to the aliens.

Joker frowned, he wanted to go into this fight with all of the crew if need be, but he saw the logic in her words. It would be useful to have a source working with the governing body and providing them with information. "Ashley." He said, she turned. "That could work for us, you may be able to give us information while we fight for them."

Ashley nodded, she didn't wanr to leave, not really but she simply couldn't go into another war. She still wanted to help and this seemed the best way. "Don't worry, I'll do my best." She joined the others.

"Now all we need is a diplomat from the Salarians, we'll have to find one." Samara spoke up, having kept her silence for most of the meeting.

However, the door behind them opened and in came the Admiral accompanied by two Republic soldiers. She stood sternly behind the aliens who all turned around to greet her.

"Was I interrupting anything?" She slowly said, backing up slightly. The soldiers beside her exchanged looks.

"No, we were just finishing up here." Raan quickly said, lifting a hand to greet her.

"Ah, I see you have set up your 'gathering'." She remarked, looking around the ones in front of her to check on the Normandy crew. "I've spoken with the other military commanders, and the senate. They have authorised me to allow you to enter service under the Republic."

There were positive murmurs about the crew as they stood up to meet the admiral face to face. "So... when can we get the Normandy back?" Joker asked eagerly, like a child who had been promised toys.

"Our technicians are just making the final touches to your ship, we have upgraded the hull and weapons systems as well as integrating a hyperdrive into your 'drive core'." Dodonna said while dismissing the troops beside her. "Your power core is something we have never seen before, but it is far in advance of anything we use. Our technicians have managed to copy some of your technology and use it in place of our power." She handed a datapad to Joker who started to study it thoroughly.

"When can we start the fight?" Garrus asked, a cocky smile on his face.

"Well, first we need to explain exactly what kind of enemy you will be facing." She grabbed another datapad that had entries on the Sith forces, weapons and tactics. "When you launch we will provide you with some of our engineers to maintain all of the new equipment, a few squads of our own troops and-" As she said this the door behind her opened and 4 robed figures entered the room, they didn't seem to be wearing any kind of armour and their robes seemed bulky. Dodonna turned around to acknowledge the Jedi as they entered. "You will also be accompanied by a squad of Jedi Knights."

The crew of the Normandy looked on at the newcomers, they had been told about these 'Jedi' but so far they hadn't seen anything about them.

"What kind of missions do you want us to do?" Liara asked as she looked over each of the Jedi.

"Your missions will mainly be scouting Sith worlds ahead of time so we can formulate counter-attacks against them." Dodonna said as a few troopers entered the room carrying crates of supplies, they dropped them in front of the crew before leaving, "You will also carry out sabotage and support for capital ships. Your missions will be extremely dangerous and take place deep behind enemy lines. We have also managed to secure some new personal weapons for each of you."

"Heh, sounds like just the kind of missions we are used to." Joker smirked while looking around at the crew members beside him, they then opened up the crates in front of them and started looking over the new weapons.


	14. Entering the Undercity

_**Nice an long chapter for you today, at least double the average length.**_

Nick, Carth and Tali hastily left the Bek base and continued down towards the elevator. Nick held point, while Carth and Tali were walking side-by-side behind him. Luckily they didn't run into any more Vulkars on the way and most of the trip seemed quiet until they reached the elevator. To the right was Javyar's Cantina while straight ahead was the elevator, there were two Vulkars facing a man in front of them. Nick took up a defensive position by a wall while Carth and Tali stayed back.

"You missed your last payment boys." The man said while pointing at the two Vulkars

"We don't take orders from you, or Kang!" One of the Vulkars shouted while his friend nodded in agreement, Tali couldn't understand a word of their language and Carth did his best to translate without giving away their position.

"Oh really?" The man said while making a sharp whistle. From behind him another man holding a very large rifle came out and aimed it at the Vulkars. He wore heavy armour, his hair was greying and he had a few noticeable scars on his face.

Upon seeing the heavily armed enforcer in front of them, the two Vulkars flinched before backing off slightly. "Canderous! We had no idea you were working for Davik!"

Canderous smirked and gripped his rifle tighter before easing up and lowering it, "Just because you're in the Vulkars, it doesn't make you invincible!" He said while pointing at them.

"No, you're right! We'll pay up!" The two Vulkars dropped credits on the ground before running off towards an apartment block.

"Canderous, I see you still have your charm." The other man smirked while turning to him and patting him on the back.

"These thugs don't put up enough fight, I need a challenge." Canderous said, shrugging off the other man while moving forward.

"Oh don't worry, I hear Davik has a special assignment for you." The other man said while walking towards Nick, Carth and Tali. "Davik will be in touch!" He shouted back.

Canderous didn't respond, he simply turned and walked in the direction of the Cantina. Carth, Tali and Nick attempted to leave but made a noise which instantly alerted Canderous. He spun around, clutching his rifle tightly, waiting to take the shot. To his surprise he saw Nick come around the corner, Tali and Carth were nowhere to be seen.

"Nick!" Canderous shouted while lowering his rifle to greet his friend.

"Canderous, long time no see!" He walked towards him and held out his hand. Canderous grabbed it and pulled him up into a rough handshake. Slightly taken aback, Nick remarked "Good to see you too pal!" He smirked at him.

"So, you still with the Beks?" Canderous said, letting go of Nick's hand.

"Yeah, it's not glamorous but it's better than working for those Vulkars." He backed up and holstered his blaster. "I saw your little exchange, you working for Davik now?"

"It's no fun, he just has me hassling thugs. I long for a real fight!" He grinned while still holding his rifle. "The Sith offer a slight challenge, I've taken a few of them on in the Undercity!" He chuckled.

"You got a plan to get off this rock yet?" Nick smirked while twiddling his thumbs.

"Not yet, but I've definitely got something brewing." Canderous pointed to his forehead and laughed.

"You'll think of something, and when you do we'll be blastin' out of here before the Sith even know what's going on!" He bellowed in laughter while Canderous joined him.

"You got it!" Canderous grabbed Nick's hand and pulled him in for another tight shake. "Davik's got me some work, shouldn't keep him waiting." She let go of Nick and turned. "Stay safe out there, fight ferociously!"

"Take as many as you can with you!" Nick shouted back as Canderous walked into the Cantina. Once he was out of sight, Carth and Tali came out of their hiding spot and greeted Nick.

"What was all that about?" Carth asked as he approached Nick.

"Just an old friend, we should keep moving. Checkpoint is just around the corner."

The three of them cautiously made their way to the checkpoint, this time the soldier halted them and armed the nearby defence turrets. After he saw their clearance, he practically begged them not to report him for insubordination, Tali scared him a bit to make sure he didn't give them anymore trouble. The three stepped into the elevator, they were mostly silent as the rode it down. Once the door opened, Tali adjusted herself to the darkness before being disgusted by what she saw. Makeshift buildings, blood everywhere and humans wearing rags and burned out armour.

"Keelah..." She whispered to herself, seeing a little bit of the Migrant Fleet here, but on a smaller and more concentrated scale. At least her people had enough to live, these people were barely living at all.

Quickly two of the dwellers approached them. "You there! Up-worlder. You owe us 5 credits!"

"Why?" Carth asked, a puzzled look on his face.

"This is our elevator, you must pay to get through." The slightly smaller one said while smirking.

Tali spotted a third dweller approach them, she silently cursed as she wondered what this one wanted. "Alright you two, get out of here!" The third one shouted, dispersing the other two, who ran off in different directions. "I'm sorry, we're not all like that down here. We just have such horrible lives."

"Why are you down here miss...?" Carth asked, his puzzled look being replaced by one of sorrow.

"You- you're from the surface! I've never seen the sky or the sun, it sounds so... so wonderful." Shaleena exclaimed with joy while turning around obviously embarrassed. "But, you obviously don't want to hear about my life." She turned and tried walking off.

"Hey, wait!" Nick stopped her, she turned back a around with a smile on her face. "We could use some information."

"Well, I'm not the one you should be asking. Our tribe leader Gendar is around here somewhere." She looked around trying to spot the man she had been talking about. "I'll take you to him." She gestured for them to follow her.

As the three of them followed the outcast, Tali looked around to see them huddling together in almost unbearable conditions. It reminded her of the early days after the loss of Rannoch, scuttling around in destroyed ships trying to escape the Geth. She shivered, the more she thought about the past the worse she felt. Tali lagged behind them a little as she was looking around, until a very old man stood in her way.

"You!" the old man shouted, startling Tali who put her hand on her chest, pointing to herself. "You are the profit! The one who will guide us! You will take us to the promised land!" The man shouted a little louder, alerting the other three.

"Promised land?" Tali asked a, feeling pity for the man. Even in desperate times people still clung onto hope for something better.

"Tali, come on." Carth said as he moved a little closer, taking her hand and dragging her back to the group.

"That was Rukil." Shaleena said, anticipating the question "He is the oldest man in the village, his tales about the promised land seem so silly now, but I loved to listen when was a child." She continued leading the other three to the tribe leader.

A few seconds later they approached a man who seemed calmer than the rest, Shaleena gestured towards him and quickly wandered off while Nick started to talk with Gendar. "Hello." Nick said in a quite warm voice.

"Hello there up-worlder, we have seen many of your kind coming into the village lately. You are among the first to interact with us." Gendar said, slightly fearful of the group. "Why have you come into this dark and sunless place? Are you in need of me or my village? I will help you any way I can."

"You said that many had passed through, what do you mean?" Carth spoke up, stopping Nick before he could speak who shot back a scowl.

"Many have passed through, men in metal armour with high grade weapons. Sometimes they would come back through with prisoners. I cannot say where they are taken after that." Gendar replied gesturing to a nearby gate which closed off the village to the outside.

Before anyone could interrupt him, Nick asked the man a question. "We're looking for a Twi'lek and a Wookiee, have you seen them recently?"

"Yes, she is among the few to have spoken to us. She was here not too long ago, asking about any nearby entrances into the sewers. I can mark locations for you." Gendar replied, tugging on every piece of knowledge he could think of.

"Anything else we should know?" Carth asked keeping back a little bit and folding his arms.

"The rakghouls are dangerous and should be avoided at all costs, anyone who is bitten will become one. Currently there is no cure." Gendar said, turning to a nearby cage with a few outcasts locked behind.

"What do you do with the ones who are infected?" Tali asked with concern in her voice.

"For the safety of the village, we keep them quarantined until they turn." Gendar replied with a sense of genuine remorse on his voice. Tali was shocked, she understood that they were a threat but it still surprised her. She grew angry and bitter at the Taris authorities, how could they allow this.

"Thanks for the information." Nick said with a warm smile on his face.

"Your welcome up-worlder, if you need anything else I will be here." As he said this, Nick and the others turned towards the gate.

They were just about to leave when Tali turned back to him to ask a question. "What can you tell me about the... uh. Old man?" Tali asked.

"Old man...? You mean Rukil?" Gendar replied, turning around and thinking for a second about who she could be talking about.

"Yes, he said I was his profit." Tali stated, thinking back to what he had said to her. "He mentioned something about a 'promised land'."

"Rukil is old and senile, his ideas about this 'promised land' are too outlandish. If you would like to speak with him, his hut is over there." Gendar pointed to a nearby hovel where Rukil was sitting staring into a camp fire.

"Thank you..." She turned around to walk over to Rukil before muttering "Keelah Se'lai.." under her breath.

"We don't really have time for this." Nick said, a frown on his face. "We need to find Mission, this place is dangerous."

"I'll just be moment, you two go wait for me." Tali replied, her mind already made up. She started to walk over to Rukil as the other two started talking with what seemed to be a trader. She sat down on the other side of the camp fire and looked up at him, his head was bowed he was obviously in deep thought. "Hello." Tali said, the mechanical hum of her mask lingering for a second afterwards.

Rukil did not respond, he looked up at her. Stared deep into her mask, searching for answers. "You..." He muttered. "You are not of this galaxy... You are something different." The old man said, a grave look in his eyes.

Tali shifted uncomfortably before giving him an answer "Yes."

"You... you can help me – help us." Rukil said, sitting up from the fire and looking a lot more intimidating. "The promised land, our future. It is a long tale of despair and hate. Do you wish for me to continue?"

Tali simply offered a slow nod, Rukil sat back and began to tell her the plight of his people. He began from the beginning, the exile of his ancestors to the undercity and how they managed to survive beyond that. His tale had Tali mildly interested, she was able to draw mental comparisons to the life of the quarians for the last few centuries, but she didn't interrupt him. Rukil spoke of the promised land as a quarian would have when regarding the home world, she was sceptical but understood that hope is what bound the outcasts together and it is also what bound her people together. He finished off his tale with details of his father and grandfather who also dedicated their lives to the promised land.

"My... apprentice is among the last to fall. Her notes, as do my father's and my grandfather's, remain lost in the undercity." Rukil's voice grew grave again and he furrowed his brow while looking at Tali. "Unless I find their journals, the hope of the promised land will die with me."

Tali could see where this was going, she was doubtful that the promised land actually existed and it would likely be a hassle to recover the journals, but she couldn't crush Rukil's or any of outcast's already severely diminished hope. "I'll do it. I will find these journals for you." A smile crept onto Rukil's face as she said this, he obviously was going to ask this of her and she simply anticipated it.

"Thank you... return the journals to me. Be quick and do not let the rakghouls get the advantage." Tali stood up and joined the others as Rukil said this, Nick and Carth asked what happened and why they took so long, Tali waived them off as they continued on their way.

As the approached the gate they heard screaming as a woman was practically begging a man to open the gate. "He's still out there! You need to open the gate now!" Tali could see the man through the slits on the gate, he was being chased by a few of the 'rakghoul' creatures.

"I can't open it. If I do, it could endanger the entire village!" The man said to the crying woman, "The outside is dangerous, we warned him but he didn't listen."

"NO!" The woman shouted, on her knees sobbing very loudly, Tali was watching it play out in front of her, she had lost someone she loved, she wasn't about to let it happen to someone else.

Tali strutted to the gate keeper "Stand aside!" she shouted into his face, the gate keeper objected but he quickly opened it up.

"What are you doing?!" Nick asked with a slink of anger in his voice, he pulled out his rifle.

"I'm not about to let her lose him!" She pulled out her shotgun before muttering "I...never mind."

After slight hesitation, Nick agreed to provide her with cover as she helped the man get back to the village. As soon as the gate creaked open, Tali sprinted out into the field, she approached the man who began thanking her and muttering to himself. He was visibly injured but he asserted that he was not bitten. He put his hand around her neck as she guided him back to the village, Nick and Carth both guarding the entrance shouting at her to hurry up. Tali led the man back, all the while she could hear the throaty and disgusting snarls of the rakghouls behind her, the man began to panic and lost his footing and fell to the floor. The rakghouls were too close, she had to deal with them before she could pick the man up. She turned around, brandishing her shotgun, only to see one of the grotesque monsters a few feet in front of her. She fired her shotgun without aiming, the bullets tore the monster to pieces and it dropped to the floor dead, a second one wasn't far behind. Tali was blind sided and knocked to the ground, her shotgun thrown out of her reach. The rakghoul hit her armour but her suit was not punctured, she had little options left and Carth and Nick were shooting at other rakghouls.

She quickly remembered that she had her trusty attack drone keyed to her, she threw her hand out and an orange orb appeared a few feet behind the rakghoul. It stood motionless until Tali said the magic words: "Chatika! Protect me!" The drone instantly snapped into action and attacked the monster on top of Tali, striking it with a bolt of electricity. The monster began to convulse rapidly, allowing Tali to slither away with the man. As she ran, Chatika attacked other rakghouls to make sure Tali and the man made it back to the village "Good girl Chatika! Good girl.".

They darted through the gate just before it snapped shut, Tali bent down and gripped her legs, her loud breaths making it through her mask.

She looked over to the see the man and the woman in tight embrace, in that one moment, time seemed to fade away. She imagined herself and Shepard just before the final charge on the beam, they had been knocked to the ground after Harbinger fired at a nearby tank and Shepard ran straight back towards her and gripped her tightly.

"Normandy! I need an emergency evac!" The commander shouted at Joker in a desperate tone.

"I'll do my best commander!" Joker shouted back in equal levels of desperation. Tali felt secure, the desperate body language Shepard showed instantly changed to one of care and loving. She thought Shepard was coming with her, in that instant she wanted to just leave it all behind and run. A nearby explosion snapped her back to reality and she was bundled onto the loading ramp of the Normandy...

"Tali! Are you alright?" Carth said, breaking Tali's thoughts and bringing her straight back into the real world. She stood up and held herself in a hunched position, clearly exhausted. "You froze up, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, let's just get on with the mission." Tali replied coldly, her calm demeanour had all but dissipated, Carth frowned but kept on moving.

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" The woman ran up to Tali and hugged her tightly, slightly taken aback Tali hugged her back lightly before pushing her back a little. "I'm sorry, I just thought I wouldn't see him again! And then you show up and just save him... you don't even know us!" The woman smiled at Tali with tears running down her face.

"Um... don't mention it." Tali replied slightly hesitantly, still a little cold from earlier.

"I can't give you anything except my thanks!" The woman clutched Tali's hand tightly "I must go now. Thank you" She added before turning around and aiding the man towards a nearby hut.

"That was brave, even these outcasts will find hope from this." Carth said, standing behind her.

"I had to do it, I couldn't let that happen again." Tali stopped herself, revealing too much already. This man saved her life, but she wasn't willing to tell him everything just yet.

"Brave? No." Nick said, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. "Stupid? Yes." He was frowning heavily, "You owe these people nothing, why help them?"

"That's rich coming from you." Carth spoke up, "You didn't owe us anything, why help us?"

"You actually helped me out, I need to repay you for that. Otherwise it goes against my code." Nick looked embarrassed, he clearly said too much.

"Code?" Tali asked, intrigued "What code?"

"Nothing." He waved his hand dismissing the idea. "We have more urgent matters at hand, let's just go find Mission." He walked over to the gate, Tali and Carth followed. Carth looked suspicious, he clearly didn't yet trust Nick fully.

The rakghouls had moved on, the gate keeper let the three of them out of the camp and they continued away from the camp. They were on full alert and flinched at every noise, distant screams and blaster fire sounded much closer than it actually was. Carth spotted a metallic figure up ahead, he quickly recognised it as a Sith soldier. He addressed the rest of the group. "Sith patrol up ahead!" He dived behind a nearby pillar.

"Wait, we may be able to get by." Nick said as he moved towards the patrol, Carth seemed dubious but followed him anyway. As they got closer to the patrol, they relaxed a bit and they met face to face shortly after.

"Citizen, what are you doing down here? This area is off limits!" The Sith Elite said rather angrily, Nick kept his cool and pulled out his datapad.

"Don't worry soldier, we've got clearance." He lifted the datapad, the Elite glanced at it for a second before lowering his weapon.

"Oh, sorry sir. You must be reinforcements." The soldier replied, turning to his squad and ordering them to stay alert. "This place is a deathtrap, I went in here with two squads of 6 men. Only three left." He gestured to his remaining men, one of them had a large dent in his armour where a rakghoul had charged him.

"Why are you down here? I thought we'd ceased investigations into the undercity." Nick asked, doing a good job sounding like he was in charge.

"No. They keep sending details down to investigate." The soldier replied, a sense of remorse in his voice. "Honestly, considering the amount of men we have lost, no republic soldier - or Jedi for that matter should have been able to survive down here." The soldier replied, Carth silently scoffed at the last sentence, he was a soldier too, but he knew the Jedi wouldn't give in so easily.

"What happened to your other squad?" Nick asked, a little bit more intrigued.

"We lost contact with them a while back, their last known position was to the east. They said they had found something strange just before they were cut off." The soldier said, quickly updating Nick's map with their last known location. "We would have went after them ourselves, but we're not in any shape to keep fighting." He gestured to his men who both seemed exhausted even though nobody could tell with their faces obscured.

"Don't worry soldier, we'll check it out for you. Just head back to base." Nick said, the Elite walked past him. The other two soldiers nodded and followed behind their leader.

"See, that went well." Nick turned around to his companions, Carth was sceptical but did admit that it could have gone worse.

"Let's keep moving." Tali said, slightly calmer than before but, not that much.

As the three of them continued to move, they had managed to evade the rakghouls for the time being. They spotted somebody coming towards them, as they got closer Tali noticed how she looked very similar to an Asari, for a brief moment she thought it may have been before she saw it as one of those Twi'lek aliens.

"Help me!" She shouted, "They've got Big Z!" She said again, closer to them now. "Nobody will help me, not even the Beks will help me... Nick!" She said as she got closer to the group, Nick stepped forward and held her shoulders.

"Whoa, slow down Mission. What's happened?" Nick asked sympathetically.

"It... It's Big Z, he's been captured by those filthy Gamorrean slavers!" Mission shouted hysterically.

"Hang on Mission." Nick said, "We need to get into the Black Vulkar base, you're the only person who can do that."

"I can, but I won't until we get Big Z!" Mission replied with a shout, pushing Nick away.

"Mission! You owe the Beks that much!" Nick said in an attempt to quell the angry teenager.

"Owe you?! You won't even accept me after everything I've done for you!" Mission replied angrily, her face almost glowing with anger.

"Fine Mission! We'll help you get Zaalbaar!" Nick finally relented "But. You will help us get into the sewers."

Mission stopped and turned to Nick before thinking for a second. "Fine. But after this, I better get some recognition from the Beks."

"Good, it's settled then." Nick replied, slightly defeated. "Where can we find Zaalbaar then?"

"The slavers like to make the sewers their base, must remind them of home." Mission turned around, thinking about where the nearest entrance might be. "If we don't hurry they will move him to a proper base and we'll never get him out!"

"It's okay Mission, we'll get him out of there." Nick said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Mission then started to lead the three east to the nearest sewer entrance.

"So who are these two?" Mission turned her head slightly to get a good look at the two newcomers.

"I'm Carth, this is Tali." Carth said, pointing at Tali.

"Hello there." Tali cheerfully said.

"Hmm... I've never seen anyone like you before. What's with the suit?" Mission asked, Tali hesitated she hadn't thought of what to say should someone ask.

"I was... born with a rare medical condition that weakens my immune system. I need to wear this suit at all times to prevent myself from getting sick." Tali stuttered slightly, but she thought her story was believable enough.

Mission saw right through it, but she decided not to pursue it any more. "Cool, that must be hard though, living in a suit your whole life?" If Nick was travelling with them, then she had no doubts he trusted them.

"It is difficult, but you get used to it and it becomes part of your life." Tali replied, somewhat proudly to Mission. She was starting to like her a little bit.

The four of them continued on through the undercity, however a dark figure was watching through a pair of binoculars. He wore a black jumpsuit with an energy resistant weave built in, his head was covered in a black helmet with a rebreather and his build was slightly thin but toned.

"I see them, they're heading into the sewers." The figure said into a small communicator he was holding in his hand. All that came back was a garbled response, the man understood though. "Roger that, I'll ambush them in there." The figure moved out from his spot and pushed a button on his utility belt, a stealth field engulfed him, making him completely invisible as he followed behind the group from afar.


	15. Unllikely Rescue Part I

_**Woo! New chapter! To all my fans, I didn't expect this to get nearly as many fvourites as it has. I seriously thought this wouldn't get anywhere. So well... thanks.**_

 _ **On with the chapter!**_

The four of them carefully made their way through the undercity, avoiding rakghouls as they went. They were almost ambushed by a particularly large group before Mission pulled them into a dark alley, without speaking she gestured to a nearby hatch in the ground and motioned for the others to follow her. Upon closer inspection the hatch was revealed to be a drain with a murky brown substance seeping through it.

"We're going down there?" Tali asked, rather shocked she knew that she would have to adjust her air filters so that she wasn't completely contaminated.

"At least you have a suit to protect you." Nick whispered as he eyed Carth who was holding his nose in disgust.

"Shh you guys! They might hear us." Mission whispered while climbing into the hole, "You want to get into the base right?" The other three grimaced before nodding slowly "Then let's go!" Mission added as she lifted the grate.

As they climbed down the rusted ladder, deeper into the core of Taris, Nick and Carth started to react even worse to the smell. Tali stayed silent, but she uttered various Quarian curses under her breath as the smell permeated her adjusted filters.

"How are you not affected by this?" Carth questioned Mission as they continued down the drain with no end in sight.

"After spending most of your life exploring down here, you learn to live with it." Mission shot a smirk up at Carth after saying this, Carth frowned slightly.

"We're nearing the bottom, I'll go first." Mission whispered, she slid down the last section of the ladder and hit the floor with a light thud. Tali could see her poking around at the bottom of the ladder, "It's clear!" She whispered up while pulling out a blaster from her jacket.

As the other three dismounted from the ladder, they also pulled out their weapons. Tali gripped her shotgun tightly as they started to move through the dark and dreary pipes, their feet squelching with each step. "Keelah, my suit will smell for years." Tali held back a groan as the smell permeated her filters, she debated turning them off just to get some relief.

"Be thankful you have that suit, it's much worse without it." Carth said while slowing up to walk beside Tali, the pipe was wide enough to have the two walking side by side.

"That bad?" Tali said, turning her head to look at Carth, for a second their eyes met and Tali shot her gaze forwards.

"It is, wish I had a suit like yours." Carth smirked while turning to Tali, she continued looking forwards.

"I would let you borrow mine... but I can't live without it." Tali shot a look back, she grinned and although Carth couldn't see it he suspected as much.

"Stay down." Mission said as she stepped towards an opening, Tali, Carth and Nick were close behind her with their weapons drawn and ready for a fight. Mission activated her stealth generator and stepped out of the pipe, she was gone for what seemed like hours. She stepped back in and gave the group a jump "It's clear, follow me." As the four of them jumped out of the pipe, Carth and Nick breathed a sigh of relief as the smell mostly dissipated. The room they were in was very large, the floor just below the exit to the pipe was grated and a large hole could be seen below them. There were several other pipes with refuse spilling out of them deeper into the sewers. "You don't want to fall down there!" Mission smirked while leaning over the railings and staring down into the depths below. Mission quickly averted her attention and started unlocking a nearby door.

Tali was conversing with Nick while Carth was pacing around behind Mission.

"Ugh, it shouldn't be taking this long-" The door shocked her and a red symbol flared on the lock, Mission fell over backwards and held her hand in pain. Carth ran to her aid but she shrugged him off assuring him she was fine. Suddenly they heard an echo of laughter behind them, all four of them whipped around to see a figure clad in black materialize out of thin air.

"Who the hell are you?!" Nick asked, flared with anger as he pulled his rifle out and aimed it at the assailant. The man held a small detonator in his hand but refrained from using it.

"I know of you, Nick, Mission, Carth." The man said, he turned to Tali "You I do not know."

"Shut up! What do you want?!" Nick shouted as the rest of the group pulled out their weapons and trained them on the assailant, "How do you know us?!"

The assailant ignored the last question "I want you." He pointed straight at Nick and continued pointing for several length less seconds.

"Me? Why do you want me?!" Nick shouted at the stranger, he gripped his rifle even more tightly than before.

"You're worth a lot of money Nick. Brejik wants me to collect." The bounty hunter smirked as he fingered the detonator.

"Shit." Nick muttered under his breath.

"This is between me and Nick." The hunter regarded the other three who were aiming their weapons at him. "I'm giving you the chance to leave while I collect." He held the detonator tighter "Get going I won't have to kill you as well."

"No!" Mission shouted as she fired her blaster straight at the bounty hunter. He stood unflinching as the bold drove towards him, there was a flash of blue energy as his shield absorbed the bolt and started running visibly. Mission looked on, defeated as she readied herself.

"You had your chance." The bounty hunter squeezed the detonator and there was a large explosion behind the group, knocking them all to the floor.

Tali's vision was black, her ears were ringing and she was lying face down on the floor. Her mind started to wander away, her arms and legs started to feel numb, she felt as though she was drifting away and watching herself lying on the floor. Shapes started appearing in her mind, then colours and the shapes started to take form, she could see the silhouettes of people. She saw Liara, Garrus, Joker, Ashley, EDI and James. She could see one more person, shrouded in darkness, the figure started to whisper her name:

* * *

"Tali..."

"Tali..."

The voice got louder and the figures retreated into the darkness, Tali could feel her eyes opening and the ringing in her ears returned.

"Tali!"

Tali woke up completely, she felt dizzy and could hardly move. She lifted her head to check her surroundings. The floor in front of her was jagged and destroyed, sparking wires and scorched metal had curled back around the centre of the explosion. She turned her head to the left to see Nick with his back to a wall and his rifle in hand, he had a cut on his head and his face was bloody. He leaned out and fired two bolts of energy towards two crates, shouting something that Tali could not hear.

"TALI!"

Tali turned her head to the right to see Carth sitting with his back to another crate, he was facing her and it was obvious he was the one calling her name. When he saw her move her head he gestured for her to join him, Tali looked around again, making sure she wasn't gunned down the second she stood. She couldn't see Mission anywhere near them, she waited a second before starting to crawl towards Carth, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, she was quite sure the assailant wouldn't spot her, he was too busy shooting at Nick.

As Tali neared Carth she started to pick up the pace and lifted herself to a crouched position as she moved towards him. The bounty hunter looked up and saw the Quarian waddling along straight into his line of fire, he quickly took aim and fired a powered burst of energy in her direction, Tali didn't see it and she was taken by surprise as the bolt tore through her barriers and melted a large hole in the shoulder plate of her armour. She was knocked to the side, but was out of sight of the bounty hunter. Carth scrambled to grab her and pulled her back to his position.

"Are you hurt?!" He shouted as he dragged her into a sitting position. Tali shook her head as Carth checked the hole in her armour, the bolt didn't go the whole way through.

"Wh- What happened?" Tali asked, shaken by the experience. She had been shot before, but the sheer force of the bolt knocked her to the ground and scrambled her senses.

"He hit you with a power blast, your shield didn't stand a chance." Carth looked over his cover to see Nick fire a barrage of shots into another crate. "I might be able to get an angle on this guy, just got to get over there." Carth pointed to a nearby support beam that he could use as cover.

"Where's Mission? I didn't see her." Tali asked as she peeked over to have a look at the crates Carth was talking about.

"I don't know, she disappeared after the explosion." Carth readied his pistol and held the top of the crate ready to jump out.

"Well go then, I'll be fine." Tali assured him while she sat up more firmly and grabbed her shotgun from the magnetic holster.

"If I get up now, I'll be right in his line of sight. You'll need to cover me." He looked up over his crate once more. "When I say so, start shooting."

"Right." Tali grabbed her shotgun and readied herself, she still felt a bit shaky from the fall but she paid it no attention.

Carth got up and vaulted over the crate, Tali immediately stood and started shooting at the crates where she had spotted the hunter last. She glanced over to Carth who was close to the support, suddenly he dropped to the floor and his blaster slid away from him, the hunter materialized out of thin air and aimed his rifle at him. Tali scrambled for her pistol, but it was not in her magnetic lock, at her distance her shotgun would have little to no effect. She was just about to throw her attack drone when she saw the hunter get impaled by a sword from behind. Mission appeared behind him and withdrew her blade as quickly as she had impaled him with it, blood spurted from the hole in the hunter's chest as he fell forwards as Carth rolled out of the way.

Carth propped himself up on his elbows, panting and taking quick breaths. Mission sheathed her blade as Nick ran up to the three with his blaster in hand, he lowered it as he spotted the bounty hunter bleeding out on the floor. Tali ran up and lifted Carth of the ground, he stood and looked down at the hunter.

"Well... thanks. If you hadn't shown up I'd have been done for." Carth spoke up, Mission grinning proudly.

"Don't mention it." Mission winked at Carth and shot her gaze to Nick who sighed and held his knees "How you doing Nick?"

"Where the hell were you?!" Nick shouted in fury as he looked up and pointed at Mission almost oblivious to the wound on his forehead.

"Hey! When you all got knocked down I just activated my stealth generator and waited." Mission replied calmly, hands behind her back with a smug grin on her face.

"Really? Well what if one of us got killed while you were playing hide n' seek! What then?" Nick asserted, accusing Mission.

"It didn't happen though, did it?" Mission pointed back, Tali and Carth just watched the display. Carth inspected the body of the bounty hunter, while Tali looked over his blaster pistol before attaching it to her suit, replacing her old pistol.

"That's not the point, it's the principle. You just shouldn't have done it." Nick backed up, rifle in hand.

"Stop." Nick and Mission turned around to see Tali holding a datapad "It says here that your bounty was only put out a few hours ago and it is for an extremely large sum of credits."

"Let me see that." Nick grabbed the datapad out of Tali's hand, she flinched backwards slightly "Damn... Every bounty hunter on this rock is going to try an collect." Nick added, all the anger flushing out of his eyes, he froze in place as thoughts consumed him.

"How can we get the bounty cleared?" Carth asked as he took the datapad out of Nick's near limp hand and looked it over.

Nick snapped back to reality as he answered "The only way we could clear it is if we paid Brejik off, but he wouldn't agree to that. Killing him would also clear the bounty, but that's next to impossible."

"Why don't you go back to the Beks, they'll protect you... right?" Mission asked, her voice dripping with fear.

"No... I'll just be a danger to them, I need a place to hide out for a while." Nick backed off, he wiped blood away from his eyes as it dripped down his face. Mission tried to help administer medpacks, but Nick just waved her away.

"We have a small hideout in the upper city, you could use it while we head for the base." Tali quickly asserted.

"Upper city eh?" Nick started pacing "Well there'll be Sith everywhere so bounty hunters will think twice about starting any fights, I don't know the way there either."

"Carth, go with Nick. Take him back to the apartment, me and Mission can go without you two." Tali interrupted Nick who stood with his mouth open, ready to say something.

"Are you sure?" Carth quickly asked, walking over to stand by Nick who had wiped most of the blood from his face and injected meds into the wound.

Before Tali could speak, Mission interrupted her, Tali narrowed her eyes at Mission "There is no debate, more bounty hunters could be on their way. Just go now."

Before Nick could protest, he was being pushed away by Carth and they were moving back to the pipe they had used as an entrance. "Great... now we have to go back through that cesspit."


	16. Unlikely Rescue Part II

_**It's been a long time my friends, but back at it with another chapter! I'll try and be a bit more spontaneous with releases over the next few weeks/months.**_

As the two of them disappeared back into the sewage pipe, Tali and Mission picked up the pace and left into a series of enclosed corridors. The two of them managed to walk side-by-side in the tight space, there was an awkward silence between them, Tali started to wish that she had taken Carth's place and escorted Nick back to the apartment. They passed by nests of rakghouls quietly and quickly without engaging them.

"So..." Mission said, throwing the words out there trying to start a conversation. "Where are ya from?"

Tali thought for a second, she really had no idea what to say, but she decided to be vague about. "I've lived on ships my whole life, never settled down anywhere." Tali hoped that it would be enough to satisfy Mission's curiosity.

"What brought you to Taris?" The young Twi'lek asked, she knew that Tali was hiding something and she wanted to find out what it was.

"We uh... had to do repairs, we were set down for a few days and then the uh... Sith came and now we cant leave." Tali had stuttered a bit in her speech, she hoped Mission wouldn't catch on.

Mission's smile died down a little, she seemed to be taking the hint. "Okay. I gotta ask though: What's with the suit?"

"Didn't I already tell you?" Tali stated, the confused look on Mission's face frustrated her "I can't live without it, if I take it off for a few seconds I could die." Tali said a little coldly, Mission took the hint and didn't ask anything else. Suddenly however she stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is-" Tali asked before Mission waved a hand up stopping her.

"There's someone ahead, I'll go have a look." She activated her stealth generator and started moving towards a part of the corridor that opened up in front of them. Tali could see the slight splashes in the muck below as Mission walked, completely invisible, up the passage.

After a few minutes, Mission materialized in front of Tali with a worried look on her face. "It's the slavers, Zaalbaar is around here. I know it."

"What do we do?" Tali asked as she pulled out her new pistol and gripped the handle, it wasn't perfect and her hand was cramped slightly but she could at least hold the blaster.

"I say we just run in an take 'em all out. They don't wear armour and they wield axes not guns, we should be able to take them out from a distance." Mission said confidently as she pulled out a pistol from her jacket.

Tali nodded and the two of them exited the passageway onto a small catwalk suspended high above a sewage grinder. They were greeted by a squad of Gamorreans; they turned around and charged the pair as they opened fire. The first wave were gunned down in seconds and the last two were killed even quicker, one of them shrieking in pain as he tumbled over the railing and fell from the catwalk into the grinder below. Mission shivered as the thought of being ground to pieces crossed her mind, Tali paid it no attention.

The two of them continued into an old water treatment plant that was completely crawling with slavers. Tali stepped out and spotted two Gamorreans at the dead end of a small corridor with two doors on the left side. She opened fire and the two slavers were put down in seconds. Mission hurried up behind her and stepped out into the corridor, it seemed empty and she lowered her blaster as she investigated one of the doors.

"That blaster of yours is really powerful!" Mission said as she shot a smile at the Quarian. Mission continued to work on the lock. "Now there's a sight to see."

"What is it?" Tali said as she came up behind her and had a look at the lock that Mission was working on.

"It's an old mechanical lock; modern hardware won't do anything to crack it. Taris has got to be the only place in the galaxy where you would see one of these. I've got a little gadget that will crack this lock." Mission pulled out a small device that looked as though it had been made out of sub-par salvage, but it managed to unlock the door in a few seconds.

Tali advanced into the room, it was small flood room with a drain in the centre and another door that was malfunctioning. Beside the broken door there was a pool of blood surrounding a severed arm that looked as though it had been bitten by some animal. Next thing Tali knew was that she had been thrown to the ground and there was a huge being on top of her ready to smash her faceplate and kill her. She heard a high pitched whistle and the beast stopped and turned around, it looked towards Mission and then stood up from Tali and walked over to her. Now with a good glimpse of the beast, Tali could see that it was covered in fur and stood at over a third taller than Mission.

"Big Z!" Tali heard Mission exclaim as she embraced the creature tightly, Zaalbaar held the young Twi'lek with similar affection. Tali pulled herself up and approached the two with caution. The creature turned and greeted her with a series of wails and moans that Tali couldn't comprehend.

"This is Zaalbaar, he's a Wookiee and he's sorry for attacking you like that." Mission nudged the Wookiee.

"It's fine, he didn't recognize me. Maybe you should have gone first." Tali said as she wiped some of the muck off her suit, luckily she had no breaches, she would need to make sure that she didn't have any more falls until she could do some maintenance.

"Haha yeah..." Zaalbaar made a few more groans and wails. "Wait... what? You're doing what?" Mission looked confused and a little interested.

"What is it?" Tali asked as she approached the two.

"This is big... Zaalbaar says he owes you a life debt!" Mission said with surprise, as if she didn't believe she would ever say it.

"Life... debt?" Tali questioned in a confused tone. Zaalbaar wailed a little more.

"It's basically a bond, you saved his life so he now serves you and will do what you order him to." Mission explained slowly to make sure Tali got it all down.

"What if I don't want him to swear his life to me?" Tali quickly asked as she eyed the hulking Wookiee in front of her, he wailed and groaned as she said the words.

"You can't just refuse, you have to honour his debt. He must really trust you if he swears a debt to you." Mission said slowly while shaking her head. "Are you sure about this Big Z?" The Wookiee groaned and Mission smiled, Tali didn't know what he said but it removed the frown on Mission's face.

"Um... thank you. I accept your life debt..." Tali said, a little dazed. She didn't really think it was necessary that he swear away his life, but more allies would make a difference.

"Great! Now that you've helped me find Big Z I can get you past that forcefield and into the Vulkar base."

"Let's get to it." Tali remarked as the three of them back tracked their way through the treatment plant and through the sewers, getting closer and closer to the Black Vulkar base.


	17. That's no guard dog

As Mission and Zaalbaar swiftly navigated the sewers with a sense of finesse and urgency, Tali began to notice how archaic and old the architecture had gotten, the locks and electronics were primitive by her standards and she would have been trapped if it weren't for Mission and her gadget that could slice these locks.

The three of them stepped into a large room with multiple doors coming off of it, it seemed more like a large hall rather than a section of the sewers and the architecture had changed. On the other side of the room was a very large durasteel door that looked as though it was designed to handle detonations.

"The forcefield is just through here." Mission uttered as she approached the door and started to engage a hacking protocol, "This will take a while, search those rooms you might find something interesting."

"If this is a back entrance," Tali said as she opened a nearby storage room by hacking the interface through her omni-tool "How come there are no guards?" She added after the door slid open with a whir.

Mission chuckled slightly "They don't need guards..." She trailed off as she thought about the extra layer of security that the Vulkars had. Mission could almost imagine the Quarian whipping around to question her. "They have a rancor guarding the back entrance, the Vulkars think it will stop anyone."

"Rancor?" Tali asked as she whipped around to question Mission who was smiling while facing away from her.

"Giant beast, armour strong enough to withstand rockets. Only an idiot would go head on with one." Mission said as she turned her head enough for Tali to spot the grin on her face. Tali stepped back and started to examine the room she had just opened, contrary to what she had previously though, it was not a storage room but another entrance into the sewers. There was a corpse slumped against the ladder, as she inspected the ladder she noticed that there was absolutely no light coming in and the top of the ladder was shrouded in darkness. She hastily began to examine the body in front of her.

It was a human female, she was dressed in similar rags to the outcasts in the village they had visited earlier, however this outcast was armed with a blaster and a sword she had and she had a backpack full of useful items and three data pads. As Tali read the entries she quickly remembered what the old man at the village had told her about his apprentice and the Promised Land, the data pads she was holding made several references to him and the fable. She had almost completely forgotten about the promise she had made, the fight with the bounty hunter was more important in her mind. While she didn't understand what the former apprentice had been looking for, she took the data pads so that she could give them to the man later.

"Hey Tali!" Mission called out to the Quarian who had disappeared out of sight, Tali quickly emerged from the room to a battle ready Zaalbaar and Mission. "I've got the lock open, the forcefield is this way." She motioned with her hands as Zaalbaar walked past her and took point. "Hey, your armour's not looking too good, we should get you a replacement soon." She started rummaging through her pockets; Tali seriously doubted she was going to pull out an armour vest. Mission pulled out a small white object and handed it to Tali.

"What is it?" Tali asked as she started to scan it with her omni-tool which left Mission looking on with interest.

"Um... it's an energy shield, attach it to your arm and it will cast a field around you that will absorb energy..." Mission trailed off as she watched Tali make her omni-tool disappear and she attached the shield to her arm. "What was that?" Mission quickly added, regarding Tali's omni-tool.

"You mean my omni-tool?" Tali asked, Mission nodded and Tali continued to explain the purpose of it. "It's basically an all-purpose tool that can be used for hacking, scanning and drone control."

Mission continued to look on in surprise as a pink orb materialized in front of her, and began erratically moving around. Mission put out her hand to touch the orb, but to her surprise her hand went straight through. "It's a hologram?" She quickly questioned.

"Not quite." Tali said as the drone retreated back to her and disappeared, "It's a small device that projects light around it and is able to fire electric shocks to do damage."

"Huh, anyway we got to get moving." Mission turned around and motioned for Tali to follow close behind, "Forcefield is this way, should be clear all the way."

The forcefield was glowing a pleasing purple colour that reflected nicely off Tali's faceplate, Mission was busy working a panel to the right of the field that no doubt opened it. "Yes!" Mission said in triumph as the field slowly blinked off and left nothing but the rusty corridor ahead. The Twi'lek turned and gave a cocky smile; Tali shook her head and started walking down the corridor, rifle held and ready for anything.

They came to a large durasteel door with a severed arm lying in front of it, Mission crouched down and examined it. The arm was tightly clutching onto a datapad with a hole blown through it like it had been shot. Tali winced as Mission pried the datapad from the dead arm and let it fall back onto the floor with a clunk, she imagined it must smell terrible.

"It says that they tried sneaking past the rancor and that they were carrying the scent of common rancor prey." Mission said, answering the question that Tali was just about to ask. They entered the next room and found a backpack containing a few syringes containing the scent and an armour vest. "Here, take this." Mission said as she passed the vest to Tali who was undoing the straps on her much lighter armour vest. She noticed quite a significant burn on her suit where a bolt had melted through the vest – no breaches though. She put on the new vest which was heavier but had thicker plating in a dark blue colour, a nice contrast from the ugly brown vest she had earlier.

Mission opened the door and peaked around the corner, her face told it all as she turned back to face Zaalbaar and Tali. "What is it?" Tali asked the dumbfounded Mission as she pushed past and peaked around the corner. The sight that greeted Tali was unlike anything she had ever seen before, chills ran down her spine as she stared up at the giant creature who had its back to them. She turned around speechless. "Is… is that the-"

"Rancor… yes." Mission interrupted the Quarian as she backed up behind Zaalbaar. "I'll set a charge on one of the corpses in the centre and coat it in the scent. Once the rancor eats it we can detonate it from the inside."

"What corpses…" Tali said as she suddenly saw the mountain of bodies in the centre if the hall, she imagined there must be a foul stench and was almost sick herself. She was reminded of the piles of human corpses aboard the Collector Base… "Wait!" Tali quickly jumped back to her senses "What if it spots you? What then?" She added with a slightly worried tone of voice.

"Don't worry" she pushed a button on her belt and she disappeared into thin air, "It will never spot me."

Tali wasn't as surprised as she could have been, the technology that Mission was using wasn't that different to the stealth technology that she was familiar with. What did have her interested was the fact that Mission didn't rematerialize a few seconds later, as far as she could tell, the effect was almost limitless.

"Back in a minute" Mission said as she darted off, a few seconds later the rancor was startled by something and rushed towards the back of the giant hall, Mission rematerialized in front of Tali, causing her to jump slightly. The beast dug through the pile of corpses and lifted a particularly fresh one and shoved it into its mouth. The sound of the body being crushed was excruciating for the whole group and Mission in particular reeled from the sound. She was still only a teenager after all.

However the beast did not have the last laugh, as it swallowed the remains of the corpse the rancor began convulsing violently as if it was choking on something. Mission pulled out a detonator and pushed the button on top causing a charge to explode in the creatures throat, a large hole sprung forth from the neck of the creature and viscera was thrown all over the floor in front of the beast as it gurgled loudly with blackish blood spewing out of the large hole in its throat. After a few seconds the beast stopped gurgling and toppled over forwards, hitting the metal floor with a loud clang and landing in a puddle of its own blood – a puddle that was expanding as the blackish liquid continued to flow out of the gaping hole in the rancor's throat.

"Keelah…" Tali muttered as she watched the towering beast fall to the floor and twitch violently, her indentured friend gave a loud growl, whether it was approval or disgust, Tali had no idea. What she did know however, was that a major obstacle had been cleared from their path.

"Come on!" Mission excitedly exclaimed as Tali continued staring in awe at the downed beast, as she snapped back to her senses she skirted around the growing pool of blood to a small alcove at the back of the hall with a door that presumably led to the Vulkar base.


	18. Lockdown

The upper city was calming down as the sky dipped to low orange colour indicating that the day would soon be ending. There were significantly less civilians wandering around as they were returning to their homes and their families, however the Sith presence had not been reduced, if anything there were even more of them than before. They were running around in squads, chattering on their radios and bringing in heavy weapons setting up checkpoints.

Carth was on edge, the Sith seemed to be mobilizing just as he and Nick had come up from the lower city, beads of sweat formed on his forehead as they dodged a patrol coming right at them. "They're mobilizing." Carth said, stating the obvious.

"I know." Nick replied in a low whisper. "They must be tightening their grip on the citizens to keep them from risin' up." He added keeping an eye out for shady individuals.

"Or they could have been tipped off about some Republic fugitives." An agitated Carth added back a little louder than he intended.

Nick shot him a look of distaste, "Keep your voice down, you don't want them to-"

"ATTENTION ALL CITIZENS!" a loudspeaker quickly interrupted, forcing everyone to stop and acknowledge their Sith dictators. "DUE TO AN INCREASE IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY, THE UPPER CITY IS NOW UNDER MANDATORY CURFEW. ALL CITIZENS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES IMMEDIATELY. ANY CITIZEN CAUGHT OUTSIDE DURING CURFEW WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT."

"Increase in criminal activity? I don't buy it." Nick added shortly after the announcement had ended, narrowing his eyes at a nearby Sith officer.

Carth had grown even more nervous at the announcement and the obvious lies. "We can't stay out; we gotta get back to the hideout." Carth turned a corner and started walking speedily towards the block. "We haven't got contact with the others though, if they need help then there's nothing we can do."

Nick followed close behind with a similar sense of urgency but with a far more calm demeanour, they pushed past groups of citizens who were running around trying to gather their things before the Sith forced them back to their apartments. A mother was trying to drag her son back to their apartment but he was being extra stubborn about it. "Mummy, I don't wanna leave! I wanna see the duel!" The child cried as his mother shielded him from the gaze of a Sith soldier. The boy suddenly broke free of his mother's grasp and ran away from her without looking and barged straight into a Sith soldier. The soldier turned around, blaster in hand, towering over the boy who had completely frozen in place. Nick and Carth were watching the whole exchange; suddenly a rather large stocky man rushed into view and confronted the soldier. Spewing insults into the dark void where he should have a face, the man then pushed the soldier away who instantly drew his rifle on the man. The man unflinchingly moved on the soldier again, the soldier readied his weapon...

BLAM

The shot rang through the street causing every soul to look in their direction to see the man lying on the floor with a smoking hole in the centre of his chest; he was still twitching slightly as the life faded from his eyes. The child was crying loudly and the mother was pleading with the soldier to let her son go.

"We have to do something!" Carth said in a loud whisper, reaching for his blaster pistol.

"We can't risk ourselves, it's not worth it. If we start shooting now, the whole damn Sith Army will come down on us!" Nick said, holding Carth's arm back. Carth was filled with rage and was ready to start killing every soldier around him at a moment's notice, however a quick look around revealed a large number of turrets surrounding them; he would be gunned down in seconds even with his energy shield. He let his arm go limp to his side as he accepted that nothing could be done. The child was hauled off screaming while the mother had been blocked off by a number of soldiers.

Carth felt defeated as he and Nick entered the apartment block where the hideout was stationed, Carth buried his face in his hands as he sat down one of the beds in the block. A mix of anger, hatred and sorrow was rushing through his mind.

High above the planet, in an almost serene view, the Sith Fleet orbited with their weapons firmly trained on the world below them. In the distance the sun could be seen dipping to the curvature of Taris, creating a wonderful spectacle. The Leviathan was further from the rest of the fleet with a small vanguard of battleships defending it, deep within the belly of the colossal vessel troops were hurrying around everywhere, Dark Jedi were training and weapons were being prepped.

* * *

"Yes." Malak's eager voice echoed through his private communication chamber. "I am tightening our hold on the planet, Bastila will not escape."

"Good." A deep and ominous voice boomed from the hologram, sounding a bit tinny from interference. "She will make a fine addition to my army."

"What of our visitors?" Malak asked, bowing his head in respect.

"They may be a threat, I am giving you leave to do what you will with them." The voice boomed with a frightening quality.

"As you wish…" Malak replied, lowering his whole body and facing up at the hologram. It was a cloaked figure, their face invisible under their hood.

"Once you have captured Bastila… destroy the entire planet." The voice boomed shortly before cutting off communication, Malak simply stood and left the chamber in its own darkness.

* * *

On the streets of the upper city the Sith continued their brutal oppression of the citizens, the streets were quiet now and the sun had almost dipped below the horizon leaving a faint orange glow in the sky. The city now lit itself with its impressive array of lights that illuminated all the major public centres. The skyscrapers themselves were adorned with beautiful coloured lights that would make anyone unfamiliar with Taris gush. However the streets were devoid of any crowds, Sith soldiers patrolled the major streets and checkpoints had been set up periodically throughout.

"What do you think they're doin'?" Nick casually asked, looking down through one of the windows at the checkpoint that had been set up.

"They're searching for something." Carth said, still sitting on the bed, Nick shot him a disbelieving look. Carth decided to clarify: "Think about it: they push all the citizens away which gets rid of crowds, darkness gives them cover and **this** violence makes people scared and submissive which makes them more liable to reveal Republic personnel in hiding." Carth looked up at the mercenary in front of him with a level of distaste.

Nick furrowed his brow before shaking his head "Hmph. You may be right."

Carth bowed his head down again, looking at the floor. "Tali and Mission don't know. If they take one step into the upper city they'll be gunned down."

"Yeah…" Nick said slowly while staring down at one of the checkpoints. There were three guards and two turrets pointed down the platform to stop any incoming traffic. A patrol came in and flashed their identity datapads before being waved through. Nick looked on through the blinders on the window, searching for a weakness in their security. Suddenly, the two turrets were engulfed in blue energy as they were hit by an ion blast, the soldiers on guard turned to be greeted with guns to their heads from the patrol that just passed through. As the turrets deactivated and the guards had been dealt with the three traitors started throwing the bodies off the side and deleting the in-built footage from the turrets. The whole episode lasted less than 5 minutes. "Shit!" Nick shouted while blinking multiple times to register what he was seeing.

"What!? What?!" Carth exclaimed while jumping up from the bed to have a look, he saw the last Sith soldier get flung off the side of the platform and the three traitors casually stroll towards the block that the two fugitives were located in.

"Bounty hunters, it's gotta be bounty hunters!" Nick cried while grabbing his rifle from the work bench. "How did they spot me through all that crap from earlier?" He slung the rifle and activated his energy shield, readying up for the coming battle.

"Wait!" Carth exclaimed, "It's unlikely that they know which apartment we are in! We have a little time."

Nick visibly relaxed a bit but still clutched his weapon tightly; he looked over to Carth "You're right. We have time to set up a defence, any ideas?"

"I have something better in mind." Carth replied, a sly grin developing on his face.


	19. Sith Confrontation Part I

_**Nice and long chapter today, hope you enjoy.**_

The Black Vulkar base was about as dreary as the sewers except on a higher level, it was no military installation but it was heavily guarded with droids and turrets set up everywhere. The three intruders had already breached the main computer room and Mission was attempting to hack through the security and unlock the elevator to the garage where the swoop bike component was no doubt being stored. The console was located inside a large hall that had many guards until Tali, Mission and Zaalbaar entered guns blazing; now there was an array of corpses and holes in the wall where bolts had missed their mark. Tali was keeping watch, her energy shield still engulfing her body in its blue glow and Zaalbaar had retrieved a number of grenades from the bodies scattered around the room growling in approval while stringing some to his belt.

Tali had found her new armour to be too cumbersome for her, her specialty was getting in close quickly and riddling her foes with shots and then moving onto the next target. Her heavier armour made it difficult to move as swiftly as she would like and a few stray blaster bolts knocked out her inferior kinetic barriers very quickly forcing her to rely on her energy shield. Tali hoped to pick up some lighter armour from the dead guards but all their armour was damaged from the fight.

Mission, meanwhile had hacked through the security systems and disabled the base security. "Here, check this out." She gestured for Tali to come and have a look at one of the remote cameras. Tali came over to see a feed that showed many guards in what looked like a set of barracks, a Twi'lek slave was forced into the room wearing virtually nothing while the Vulkars gawped at her. Mission quickly hit a few buttons on the control station and an exposed transformer overloaded sending electrical shots through the room killing most of the guards instantly. "Ha take that ya Vulkar scum!" She exclaimed triumphantly as the slave used the confusion to run from the guards, she exited the barracks and entered the hall where the three intruders were standing.

"Help me!" She screamed as a Vulkar gave chase with horrible burns on his face. He quickly caught up to her and hit her with his pistol, oblivious to the three intruders. He looked up for a second and noticed the Wookiee towering over him.

"Who the-?!" Was all he could say as the beast grabbed him by the neck and crushed his throat with very little effort. His lifeless body hit the ground with a loud thud and the slave backing off in terror.

"Don't hurt me!" She screamed in hysteria, "Stay back!"

Tali and Mission quickly made their way around to comfort the scared woman, on closer inspection she was very young, couldn't have been much older than Mission. "Are you alright?" Tali asked as Mission embraced the young Twi'lek.

"I… I don't know." She started sobbing loudly as she looked to the side and saw the Vulkar with a crushed neck. "Please… just let me go." The former slave pleaded as she pushed the kind hands of Mission and Tali away and quickly running for the exit without a word.

"Let's keep moving." Mission stated obviously as she motioned for Tali and Zaalbaar to make a move towards the garage elevator. Tali was hesitant at first, everything about this galaxy made her angry, at first she had hoped that there may have been improvements over her last home, but it was the same old discriminatory and violent galaxy. She followed on with the other two as they entered the elevator and set it on course to the lower level.

The garage was oily, smelly and dirty as you would expect from a gangland swoop garage. There was a central hall with a crane and 4 swoop bikes stationed on the longest walls. There was smoke everywhere and scorch marks from welding torches. Tali and Zaalbaar were hidden around the corner while their blue friend did recon with her stealth generator, Tali sighed as she adjusted the sight on her pistol, she needed to get out of her suit – badly. Her indebted companion looked at her, whether he looked concerned was anyone's guess, but one thing was clear: he had no idea what he was looking at.

A few minutes later Mission rematerialized in front of the two, making Tali jump a little as the young Twi'lek appeared brandishing her rifle. "Just a mechanic and two defunct security droids, if we're quiet we can just sneak past." She clutched onto her pistol and motioned for Tali and Zaalbaar to follow. As they turned the corner, the mechanics legs could be seen sticking out from underneath a swoop bike, he was humming a strange tune that seemed badly made or he was just humming it wrong. The trio made for a nearby ramp that led even lower into the base, "They probably didn't count on anyone making it this far, security is really relaxed." They approached a door at the bottom of the ramp with a computer panel which was glowing a faint blue on the side. "Hang on, might be able to access the cameras…. There!" Mission exclaimed in triumph after hitting a few buttons on the holographic interface. Tali leaned in behind her; the one camera that she managed to get was showing that the corridor ahead had a large amount of guards.

"What should we do?" Tali quickly asked, gripping her pistol tightly and getting into a firing position.

Mission didn't answer, instead she tore off one of the panels next to the console and started tearing wires out while frantically pushing buttons on the console. "Bypassed the security protocols, I have full control of everything on this level." She looked through her options. "If I set an alarm off in one of the garage bays, all the guards should rush to that bay and then I can seal them inside the bay."

"That could work, we can take care of the guards if it doesn't." Tali said, loosening her grip on her pistol and holding it at her side. Mission took her approval and punched in some keys.

"The system says that the engine prototype is in bay 4, I'll set the alarm off in bay 1." Mission said as she made the actions in order to set off their plan. An alarm could be faintly heard behind the steel door, Mission had full camera control and watched the guards rush into the room, once they were all in she sealed the doors with magnetic locks. Nobody was getting in or out for a while.

With the hallways empty, the three continued towards bay 4. Mission couldn't access camera control for this room so they were unsure if there were guards but it was probably likely that Brejik had ordered them not to get distracted by anything. All three of them switched on their shields and readied their weapons. The door slid open and the 5 guards inside all pulled their weapons, what ensued was a tense standoff until one of the Twi'lek guards began speaking in his native tongue, Tali couldn't understand a word of it but one of the human guards spoke up. "Come on Mission, the Beks don't treat you with the respect you deserve." She said in a sly tone while darting her gaze back and forth between the trio. Tali knew they were trying to turn Mission away from the Beks and join the Vulkars however she wasn't going to let that happen.

"Mission!" Tali said, causing the young Twi'lek to face her, but not lower her weapon on the Vulkars "If you betray the Beks, you betray me and Carth, Zaalbaar and Nick especially!"

"Ahh Nick." The human from earlier muttered, "I see he's manipulated you into thinking that the Beks are so righteous."

"The Vulkars support – no they USE slaves and deal in the SLAVE TRADE! How could you work for people who do that?!" Tali gave Mission a hard stare, even if her expression wasn't received, the tone of her voice got through.

"You're right, the Vulkars are evil! I – WE would never work for you!" Mission drew her blaster and gunned down one of the guards forcing everyone into defensive positions. Tali jumped to the side behind a steel beam and activated her energy shield, Mission ducked behind a steel countertop, Zaalbaar, however was growing more creative and had charged the Twi'lek in command and was beating him to a pulp on the floor, his screams dying down. Mission let loose a few shots blindly, missing them all; she stood to aim properly however she was hit in the arm and thrown back into cover, screaming in pain. Tali looked over to see Mission clutching her arm, her face scrunched up in pain. She peeked around to pick a target, only two left and Zaalbaar had the other one by the throat, she leapt out of cover and fired her pistol, accidentally pushing a switch on the side and fired a charged shot at the enemy, the recoil almost threw the gun out of her hand. The unlucky Vulkar was hit by a blast of concentrated energy which melted straight through his armour and his body; he was thrown backwards by the blast and fell to the ground.

Zaalbaar tore off the arms of the final guard who went down screaming before dying of blood loss. Once the shooting had stopped, Tali quickly rushed to Mission who was still writhing in pain from the shot. She had her hand clutching the wound, no blood but severely burned. Without saying anything, Tali grabbed one of the medpacks that Carth had bought earlier and injected the Kolto into Mission's arm. The relief came immediately; Mission breathed a sigh of relief as the painkillers did their job, Tali then wrapped a bandage around the wound. After being helped up, Mission thanked the Quarian and continued on to look for the engine.

"There it is!" Mission exclaimed in triumph as she spotted the oversized engine, Tali was intrigued and wished that if she had the time she would take it apart and analyse its inner workings. The thing was a beast and would require both Tali and Mission to carry it back to the Bek base.

"What about the guards? We will be completely defenceless against them." Tali complained in protest.

"They're still locked in that room, trust me." Mission replied confidently, seemingly ridding away Tali's concern. The two of them began carrying the part out of the Vulkar base.

They went back to the main hall only to be greeted by the mechanic from earlier; he looked absolutely terrified at the sight of two heavily armed people inside the base. Seeing as they were carrying the part, the Vulkar pulled his rifle and pointed it at them.

"I don' know what ya think yer doin' with that part, but yer gon' give it back right now…" From behind the pair a shot rang out and a green charged shot hit the Vulkar square in the head, disintegrating it in one shot. The now headless Vulkar fell over backwards; Mission and Tali looked at each other and heard the familiar wail of their furry friend. Zaalbaar was clutching onto his bowcaster with a grip that could shatter bones.

"Big Z! Thanks for the help." Mission replied in appreciation, the Wookiee simply growled in response and the three of them carried the swoop engine out of the Vulkar base.

* * *

The Sith continued their campaign of suppressing the citizens in the upper city; however the streets had been relatively quiet since the initial curfew had begun. The Sith presence had not lowered at all, however, and troops continued to patrol and set up heavy weaponry. However, there were two who were not willing to submit to their evil oppressors. Nick and Carth had since found a way to bypass the Sith by using maintenance tunnels to get to the lower city.

The corridor they were currently in was cramped, lit very sparsely with red emergency lights. There was water dripping from a pipe just above a door that Nick was working on, Carth was nervously aiming down the corridor from where they came.

"You sure we gave those bounty hunters the slip?" Carth asked, never once taking his eyes off the corridor.

"They would have found us by now, now quiet down." The mercenary shot back, employing a security tunneler into the door panel causing it to be filled with junk data allowing Nick to open the door. The door slid open with a loud creak, opening an even darker span of maintenance shafts. "Let's move." Nick added, swiftly moving through the open doorway. As Carth advanced in after him he shut the door and started to prepare a fragmentation mine to cover their tracks. "What are you waiting for!? Just lock it already!" Nick shouted from behind Carth.

"Alright, I'm done!" Carth hastily said as he turned from the door and ran after Nick.

"As soon as we get to the lower city we gotta find Tali and Mission before they leave." Nick stated as they passed through another door and deeper into the tunnels. Above they could hear faint footsteps from Sith Soldiers marching around on the metal streets above them.

"Yeah…" Carth said, his thoughts clearly elsewhere, Nick paid him little attention as he continued to navigate the maintenance shafts, looking for a hatch or passage that could take them to the lower city quickly.

Suddenly, a little ways behind them, one of the doors slid open revealing one of the bounty hunters that had been tracking the two. As the door opened there was a faint beeping sound, the charge that Carth had set off was about to explode and kill the bounty hunter. The hunter barely had time to register that he was about to die, but he managed to look up and ahead just before he was shredded in the resulting shrapnel from the explosion. The shockwave caused both Nick and Carth to spin around and see the twisted remains of the corridor behind them.

"What happened?!" Nick shouted while moving down the corridor back the way they came.

"I was trying to detonate the door controls with an explosive, looks it worked." Carth replied, almost looking pleased with himself.

"You… IDIOT!" Nick cried as he frantically began to move through the corridors. "The Sith will have heard that, and I guarantee that-" he was cut short as he opened a door and a squad of Sith soldiers stood greeting him. For a second both sides froze in place, unsure how to react. Very quickly however Nick pulled his gun and fired a shot at the first soldier, the bolt pierced his armour and the soldier fell to the floor dead.

"He's got a gun, take him out!" One of the soldiers shouted as they all drew their weapons and advanced towards the two, Nick shut the door just as the Sith began firing causing all their shots to explode on the closed door.

"Come on!" Nick said as he backed away from the door, he was sweating nervously as he turned around and ran back the other way. Coming up to the section that had been destroyed, Nick started to look for a way through, Carth looked on worriedly. The door behind them opened and the soldiers charged in firing shots straight at the two, Carth pushed Nick out of the corridor into a thinner section of the shaft that led in another direction just before the shots hit them.

"We need to move now!" Carth shouted at braindead looking Nick who didn't seem to paying attention and almost fell over. He was snapped back to reality by the ping of a blaster bolt hitting the wall in front of him, he turned to Carth who again shouted at him to move and the two continued down the corridor away from the pursuing soldiers.

As they ran from the pursuing Sith, they turned corners but no new route was available. They pushed on until Nick got ahead and pushed through a durasteel blast door only to find a room with a security console, more importantly there were no exits. "It's a dead end." Nick stated flatly, turning around to leave before Carth stood in his way.

"Then this is where we make our stand." Carth said, facing a horrified Nick.

"No! We can't, do you have any idea how many Sith are out there?!" Nick cried while Carth calmly walked by and started pushing crates to form a crude barricade.

"We have no choice, either we stand here or we die!" Carth shouted back, Nick seemed to get the message and helped Carth build his barricade. The Sith were not far behind, giving the pair minutes to get ready. Carth locked the door and placed a concussive charge in front of it, anything else would vaporize everyone inside. He then climbed over their makeshift defence and waited.

Minutes went by that felt like hours, Carth was reminded of a similar situation during the Mandalorian Wars, Nick simply let the sweat drip down his face as he readied his blaster. The door started to be pounded and the loud bangs from the fists outside were evident of this. Muffled shouts could be heard as the Soldiers outside moved to blow the door open. Both Carth and Nick activated their energy shields, waiting for the door to open and for their pursuers to be visible.

The door exploded into a flush of bright white light as the Sith blew open the door, almost immediately after, the concussive mine laid by Carth activated and blinded the squad of Sith while Carth and Nick stood up and fired a flurry of shots into the opening, the explosion fractured a nearby pipe and water sprayed out into the hole where the door had been. Partially blinded by the explosion, the concussion mine, and the water gushing from the pipe, the pair missed a large number of their shots: only downing two of the Sith soldiers while the others retreated for cover with only one minor injury. Carth and Nick were then greeted by return fire that bounced off their shields but forced them down anyway, the Sith began activating their more powerful, military grade shields. The flash had died down and both sides could now see perfectly well, the Sith were covering in alcoves outside the room while Nick and Carth had superior cover but not the tactical advantage: the room they were in slightly sloped towards the back – where their barricade was.

"Damn it!" Nick shouted over the gunfire as one of the fuses in his shield blew out forcing him to reconfigure the settings. He peeked over cover and saw one of the soldiers advancing, he unleashed a rapid shot that riddled the soldier with blasts, his shield absorbed a lot of the damage until it shorted out causing the soldier to rely on his armour; however that quickly gave out under the fire from Nick's heavily upgraded rifle. "Hah!" Nick called out triumphantly while crouching back down.

Carth readied a frag grenade and threw it out into the open, it landed near an unlucky soldier who, for a few seconds accepted his fate before the grenade opened a deadly wave of frag in all directions, completely shredding the armour and skin of the unlucky soldier. The grenade didn't kill him, but he was put out of action following severe burns and internal bleeding. After this, the remaining soldiers pushed back slightly, causing a lull in the battle. Neither Carth nor Nick knew how many soldiers were remaining, but they figured their numbers must be thinning if they were reluctant to start pulling the trigger on the two. In these precious moments, they both knew that they had a few minutes or less to prepare for the next wave.

Nick stood up from his crate and vaulted over it, using his shield as a contingency while using the jet of water as cover, he approached the closest body of one of the Sith and quickly looted it, taking his energy shield and his rifle. Carth kept a close eye out with his pistol at the ready and his shield on a new fuse. Suddenly a wave of blaster fire erupted from the opening, disintegrating on Nick and blowing his shield in a matter of seconds, as he moved the fire followed him and his armour was riddled with shots as he fell over the barricade face first onto the floor showing the extent of the damage. Some of the shots had pierced his armour and had burned his back with deep wounds, Nick moaned in agony while Carth hurriedly pulled him closer and injected him with an advanced med-pack, spreading Kolto throughout the wounded area. Another flurry of shots riddled the crates and plasteel cylinders of their barricade forcing Carth to lean in and take cover. Finding that he was out of med-packs, Carth instead found some of the Medi-Gel that Tali had been carrying, without thinking he applied it to the remainder of the burns hoping for the best.

The jet of water died down to a slight drip and Carth peeked over the crate to see a horrifying sight: a towering three legged assault droid had been called in as backup, it's repeating blaster glowing red with overuse. It was glowing red from an enhanced military energy shield and it started to move forwards slowly. What these droids made up for in power they lost in speed giving Carth a few minutes more to prepare, he grabbed that Sith energy shield and the rifle that Nick grabbed earlier and readied both. He had one last frag grenade and hoped to eliminate the soldiers with it; he tossed the grenade behind the assault droid and it exploded with the muffled scream of a soldier in the background. Unfazed, the droid continued its slow movement towards the barricade, searching for a viable target. Carth mentally counted to three before standing up over cover and unloading all his shots into the droid who in turn opened fire with its repeating blaster, burning holes in the wall where it missed its target. The flurry of bolts pounded away at the assault droid, knocking out its shield and then its armour, the high power of the Sith battle rifle was enough to knock out the assault droid quickly. Carth backed into cover, finding his energy shield burned out and the power pack in his rifle overheated and melting the core of the rifle making it unusable. Carth mentally cursed himself before drawing his trusty pistol. He peeked over cover to see the droid still functioning, but heavily damaged after the last hail of gunfire, it's repeating blaster hanging from one of its 'arms', Carth finished it off with a power blast that tore the droid into two and it's sparking components fell to the floor.

Carth stood up to gaze at his victory but was greeted by two more towering assault droids approaching his position. With the rifle all but useless and his pistol too weak to effectively deal with the shield, Carth cowered behind the barricade with nothing left to do but accept his fate. Nick groaned in pain as he tried to turn around, successfully propping himself against the barricade he turned to Carth and the two exchanged a look before accepting their end. Nick held out his hand revealing an ion grenade he had been hiding, the droids hadn't advanced through the door yet so Carth quickly grabbed the grenade and tossed it at the droids. It detonated in a wave of electricity that shorted out the droid's shields and stunned them momentarily. With the droids disabled, the pair relaxed behind the barricade again, neither making a sound, apart from the heavy groans from Nick.


	20. Sith Confrontation Part II

Tali and Mission exited the Bek base as Zaalbaar carried the engine inside, the guard waved them away as they started their exit to the upper city in order to meet with Carth and Nick. The two were weary of the dangers in the lower city and cautiously approached the elevator, Tali now fully understanding the operation of her weapon, held it firmly in both hands as she struggled to find a comfortable position for her three fingers.

"We're almost to the elevator." Mission stated excitedly, she seemed awfully giddy about something and Tali couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Sensing the Quarian's curiosity, Mission spoke without turning around. "I've never properly been to the upper city, I've snuck up there but all I've seen were glimpses before the authorities chased me away."

"You'll be able to see it properly now." Tali said calmly, reassuring the young Twi'lek who showed a smile.

"Thanks… by the way." Mission said quietly, she turned to face Tali and was met with her glowing eyes. "I almost considered joining the Vulkars back there, you stopped me."

"Hey, it was nothing. They had to be stopped." Tali said quickly, putting a hand on Mission's shoulder.

"I know… just… thanks." The brief moment was interrupted as Mission suddenly turned towards the elevator. Things went back to business as she started to mess with the control panel; Tali stepped to the side and stayed alert while Mission attempted to open the doors. "It's not opening, elevator is on lockdown, I couldn't open it even if I wanted to: the controls are on the upper level."

"What do we do?" Tali quickly asked, "Isn't there some other way up?"

"There are some old maintenance tunnels that I would sometimes use, but I can't say what condition they are in." Mission turned around and went for a nearby wall, tearing off a loose sheet of metal to reveal a rusty hatch that no doubt led to the maintenance tunnels. Mission pushed a button on a small panel beside the hatch and it slid open with a loud and slow grind. "Here, this should take us to the upper city; we're going to need to do a little climbing though." Mission climbed into the hatch and grasped the ladder and began ascending, Tali hastily followed and climbed into the hatch.

Faint red lights illuminated just enough to see the next one but not enough to see the ladder or the walls clearly. As they climbed, both of them stayed silent, almost as if they didn't want to be heard; it was a surprise for Tali as the normally talkative Mission stayed quiet. Their ascent was not slowed by anything, Tali was growing more fatigued however, with no proper rest since they left the upper city. She hoped that she might get a chance to peel out of her suit, but she knew it was unlikely.

Suddenly there was an explosion overhead, far enough to sound distant but close enough that it was traceable. "What was that?!" Tali asked up the ladder, Mission responded by increasing the speed she climbed with Tali following behind. They both ascended to the top of the ladder where there was a hatch; upon opening the hatch the sound of blaster fire penetrated their ears even though they were inside a small storage room, the battle must have been closer.

"Come on, let's go check it out." Mission said just as Tali readied her pistol and activated her energy shield. The two advanced through the door and peeked around the corner, Mission flinched back when she spotted a squad of Sith soldiers advancing towards them, hiding in the storage room the squad completely ignored the open door and rolled past the two. After they left, Tali peaked around the open door into the corridor, seeing the soldiers turn a corner at the far end and more blaster fire erupting from their direction. "Let's go!" Mission pushed past and out into the corridor at running speed with Tali close behind.

As they approached the same corner they slowed to walking pace and peeked around, the Sith were firing into a destroyed door frame and bolts were being returned. A grenade came from the hole and exploded near a Sith soldier who was completely shredded from the frag, he was groaning in agony on the floor. After the grenade the Sith backed off slightly and there was a lull in the fight. "Let's go." Mission whispered, but Tali disagreed as one of the Sith started punching something out on his communicator.

"They're calling for reinforcements; we need to wait for a better moment." Tali said as she looked behind only to see three large drones rolling on the floor towards them. Without hesitation Tali pushed both herself and Mission into a nearby alcove and the three drones rolled through very quickly. Once they turned the corner all three deployed instantly into towering assault droids, their shields activating while one advanced down the ramp towards the room, it fired a barrage of shots into the small room and continued to advance. The other two slowly advanced down the ramp while the soldiers backed up so as to not get in the way. "Keelah…" Tali uttered as she watched the assault droids fold out and begin advancing on their objective.

Mission activated her stealth generator and snuck up behind one of the three soldiers and slashed at him with her sword. The energy weave made his armour vibrate and split apart revealing open areas for her to slash away causing more significant damage to the soldier. Amidst the confusion, Tali killed one of the other soldiers very quickly with her pistol. From the opening, a grenade was thrown and it landed on the floor near Tali, she froze in place and time seemed to slow down for her. Mission quickly jumped towards her and pulled the remaining soldier up and threw him at the grenade, he fell on top of it and started screaming before it exploded, ending his life instantly. The first assault droid entered the room and was met with a flurry of laser blasts before it was destroyed. The last two entered together for a better chance of defeating their adversary.

"Come on let's take 'em out!" Mission whispered, now that the cacophony had died down, Tali's response was halted by a hail of gunfire erupting from the two assault droids.

"We'll be killed before we can even dent them, we've got to wait." Tali replied to a slightly disappointed Mission. However the two were cut short by a large electronic explosion that made both of them flinch; both droids were stunned for a second. "Now's a good chance, let's move!" Tali said before advancing towards the assault droids.

* * *

Carth was cowering behind the barricade after the ion grenade had detonated. He didn't want to look up in case his head was blown off by one of the droids. He heard movement and a loud thud, hesitantly he looked up over the barricade to see one of the assault droids on the floor sparking with electricity and just behind he could see the silhouette of a Sith soldier, the other assault droid was advancing on him very slowly, its repeating blaster glowing red and sparking. He fired off a couple of shots but both missed; the assault droid used one of its arms to tear a gap in the barricade knocking Carth to the floor facing up at the droid. The pistol was knocked out of his hands to the side, the droid towered over him and lifted its arm ready to crush him, and Carth cowered in fear: bringing his hands to his face in a futile defence against the immense strength of the droid.

But the swing never came. Carth slowly opened his eyes and removed his arms to see the droid had started sparking before the single light in its "head" faded into black. The droid keeled over to the side and hit the metal floor with a loud clang. Carth was bewildered at first, but looking up he could see the familiar violet mask of Tali. "Tali!" He half shouted half cried before she offered him a hand and pulled him up, her attack drone was hovering around and she activated her omni-tool and let the drone fade away.

Mission meanwhile had turned a groaning Nick over to see his wounds. "Woah!" She exclaimed as she looked down at the burns all over his back and the strange gel that had covered a few of them.

Tali approached and gasped with similar surprise. "We need to get him out of here." Tali said with concern in her voice.

Carth sighed and stood after grabbing his pistol "Well you're a sight for sore eyes." He said, quite a delayed reaction after the other two had spoken. "We need to leave, the Sith will send reinforcements."

"Yeah… but how are we going get him out?" Mission asked, pointing towards Nick.

Carth sighed "I'll carry him." He said as he started to grab Nick, he found it to be quite challenging and removed Nick's heavy plated armour and then lifted him over his back. Tali, frustrated at the pace and concerned for Nick, helped Carth so that they could get out much quicker.

"We need to get moving. Anywhere that we can take him?" Tali asked quickly, with her hand still on Nick's back even though Carth was holding him tight. Nick groaned in pain.

"There's this doctor - Zelka Forn, he'll take him in, he takes anyone in – even republic fugitives." Mission replied, Carth immediately lit up afterwards.

"Really? Where is this place?" Carth said quickly while the group continued through the dark maintenance corridors.

"It's on the upper city, on the same street as the cantina." Mission said, turning down a corridor that no doubt led up there.

"Wait!" Carth stopped them, Tali and Mission turned to face him. "The upper city is out of bounds, the Sith cracked down and declared mandatory curfew, we can't go up there until morning."

Mission pulled out a small device and looked down at it, "But it's morning now." Carth had surprise and relief written all over his face while Mission simply smiled

Carth was lost for words but Mission just simply continued on until they eventually made it back up to the upper city.


	21. The Truth

Once the four of them were back up on the upper city they found it to be extremely calm with minimal Sith presence, however they were still around. Carth was still carrying Nick and the group hesitated before they spotted other civilians roaming around. The sun was rising over the horizon, even though it physically couldn't be seen around through the buildings, the iconic orange glow was visible.

Before the four of them proceeded Mission stopped Carth. "I'm sure the Sith up here will be at least vaguely aware of what went on in the maintenance tunnels, if you go up there carrying him the Sith will instantly know." After saying this, Carth nodded in silent agreement and started to gently lower Nick off his back.

Tali helped him down onto his own feet "Can you walk?" She asked, her tone caring and gentle, Nick only grunted in response, but after a few seconds of probing he nodded slowly. The four of them moved away from the hole that they had emerged while Nick limped between them, Mission walked in front while Carth and Tali stood beside Nick to make sure he did not fall.

"Not much further now." Mission said as she made a direct beeline towards the medical facility, Carth and Tali glanced at each other as they walked, making sure to avoid citizens and Sith troopers alike in order to not arouse any suspicion. Luckily they managed to get across to the facility without grabbing anyone's attention, Nick leaned against a wall beside the entrance while Carth and Mission went to open it. Nick was breathing heavily and looked as though he was about to collapse, his eyes couldn't stay open and he was barely able to even lean against the wall.

As the door opened Zelka Forn approached and greeted them "Ah, Mission. How are you today -" Nick walked in and almost immediately lost his footing and collapsed to the floor, Mission gasped and ran to his aid while Zelka silently crouched to aid as well. "What happened to him?!" The doctor asked before looking at his singed back and instantly realised, "We need to get him to the Kolto tank immediately!" Zelka ran to the wall opposite the door and pushed a button, Carth and Mission lifted Nick up while Tali watched from behind. They carried him to a tube that was draining of some kind of liquid, Tali presumed this was the 'Kolto' substance she had heard of, and Carth helped Nick into the tube while Zelka and Mission stripped him down to a thin jumpsuit beneath his armour. Finally Zelka attached a rebreather mask to Nick's face and then connected it to a tube at the top, after all this the tube was shut and it started filling with Kolto.

Tali watched from the side and it was a far cry from her experience of slapping medi-gel on everything and hoping for the best, from what she understood, submersion in Kolto could heal minor wounds in a matter of hours and major ones over a day or two. So far she was impressed, but she knew when she was not needed and instead opted to poke around the facility. There were several other similar tubes in the facility, however they were in a state of disrepair, there was exposed wiring in the ceiling, water dripping in the corner and a few beds scattered around. Near the entrance was a small console with a far shadier looking man hunched over, Carth and Mission were now conversing with Zelka. While passively looking over one of the desks, something caught her eye: a pair of dog tags lay on the table, in her curiosity Tali lifted them up and looked at them.

 ** _Blood type B_**

 ** _11002897_**

 ** _Sanchez_**

 ** _J. S._**

 ** _M_**

 ** _SAN_**

Tali idly pondered what 'SAN' could mean in this galaxy, like most dog tags both sides were identical, however once she flipped them over she stopped dead and her hands went solid. In front of her lay the unmistakeable insignia of the Systems Alliance, slightly scuffed but otherwise still true. She quickly concluded that they must have belonged to one of the marines that crash landed with her and for a brief second she regretted the fact that she didn't even know their names. Her mind cast back to the first time she held Shepard's dog tags in a similar way to the ones she held now, but she pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Carth watched Tali turn around and saw his slightly faded reflection in the depths of her mask "What's up?" he casually asked, noting how she seemed tense.

"It's uh… it's nothing." Tali said quickly, scrunching her hands behind her back, the chain of the dog tags rattled slightly causing Tali to silently disparage herself.

"What are you holding there?" Carth asked, gesturing to the dog tags that she was holding tightly behind her back.

Deciding that secrecy was probably not the best course of action considering her position in the galaxy, Tali silently removed her hands from behind her back and revealed the metal tags that she had been hiding. Carth suddenly wretched, thinking that they could belong to a dead or dying republic soldier but once he saw the strange logo he regained composure. "These belonged to one of the soldiers that crashed with me here." Tali said with a soft worry in her tone.

Carth reeled slightly after hearing the words, but decided to comfort her, "Are you sure?" He asked gently, understanding that the moment was tense.

Tali simply nodded. Carth turned to see Mission and Zelka finishing up with Nick in the Kolto tank. "Mission said he'd take in anyone, so these guys must be around here somewhere." He said while looking around.

Tali brought up her omni-tool and passively scanned the room, finding that she was having some trouble registering the technology in the room, she still hadn't worked out the specifications of this galaxy, but there was no time in her current situation. She passively scanned past a wall – at least that's what she thought before receiving life readings on the other side.

She look behind her, Zelka and Mission were finished and were now discussing something she couldn't hear. She silently motioned for Carth to approach; once he was within earshot she whispered "This wall." Tali waved her hand "I think it might be a door, there are life readings on the other side."

Carth turned to look at Zelka quickly before turning back, "Makes sense, if he has fugitives he probably wants them hidden."

"But would he believe us if we said we wanted to help?" Tali asked, overstepping herself slightly. She shot a look at the doctor, to her surprise he was staring directly at her, as if trying to get a reading. After a tense few seconds he turned back to Mission, setting Tali's thoughts and fears in motion. "You go distract him, I'll open this door." She said adamantly.

"Are you sure? He could be a help to us-" Carth uttered before Tali cut him off abruptly.

"I'm sure." Tali interrupted, another thought crossed her and she decided to voice it "What if he's working for the Sith? It sounds like the perfect front operation; citizens bring in Republic troops and the Sith are able to take both into custody!" Tali half whispered, half shouted. Carth to reeled back slightly, the thought had crossed his mind, but it did sound quite plausible given the situation, Carth nodded in agreement and called Zelka over to look at something else. Tali tried interfacing with the door lock through her omni-tool, but to no avail, her hacking program didn't recognise the foreign device despite uploading code from the droid arm earlier. Conscious of time, Tali closed down her omni-tool and started to work on the door itself – cracking open a nearby panel as quietly as she could – the technological barrier was still an issue, but there were remarkable similarities she started to notice and very quickly she had crossed the correct wires allowing the door to wheeze open. She had no doubt that Zelka would hear it but she was unfazed as the door creaked open.

The room on the other side was fairly similar to the main reception with beds and similar Kolto tanks, the tanks on the far end were occupied by two humans, one male and one female. On nearby tables the familiar blue Alliance Marine armour was lying arranged along with a pair of M8-Avenger assault rifles. Tali stood in surprise, she didn't know what to expect, but it was clear that this man had no ties to the Sith. Zelka ran up behind her "What are you doing?!" He said, but it was too late everything was clear. Tali stretched out her arm and let the tags hang from her hand, rattling slightly, Zelka took the tags from her and relaxed slightly, "You know these men?" He quickly asked.

"Yes." Tali replied as she moved forwards into the room towards the Kolto tanks, Mission had joined Zelka by his side and Carth was walking behind Tali to the table where the weapons and armour was located. Tali walked closer to the tank and began to notice the extent of their wounds; they clearly weren't going to survive.

Zelka was confused, he had never in his entire life seen or heard of soldiers like the two Alliance Marines in front of him, and knowing someone else who did was extremely strange. "Some citizens brought them to me a few days ago, they didn't know where they came from but they were sure the Sith would want to arrest them. What could I do? I can't refuse medical help to any wounded person, their injuries were too severe however and they are on their way out." Zelka moved behind Tali as he spoke "I keep them here so that their final days can be lived out in peace, the Sith would not grant them the same treatment." A look of remorse flashed over his face.

"Thank you." Tali softly said, the only compassion she had received since entering the galaxy had been from Carth, Mission was still a little cold and she could hardly get a reading on Nick. Carth came up beside her and the two exchanged a look, his confident yet calm demeanour reminded Tali of Shepard, a tear welled up in her eye as her mind was cast back to him, she was glad that Carth couldn't see her face.

Mission came up to her and looked over towards the armour and weapons on the table, "Okay, who and what are you?" Mission had finally worked up the courage to ask the question that had been burning in her mind since meeting the Quarian in the Undercity and then fighting alongside her in the sewers.

Tali looked over to the side and met Carth's eyes, he silently nodded giving Tali all the encouragement she needed. "I'm not from this galaxy." She said slowly, turning around to meet Mission mask to face, "Our entire galactic civilization was destroyed by…" She stopped slightly as she was forced to relive the destruction that the Reapers brought "By the Reapers, we were forced to run and we left the Galaxy in order to colonize new worlds."

"Huh." Mission said in slight awe at Tali's retelling of the events in her recent life.

"We… the fleet that we arrived in was attacked… I was separated from my friends and even my own species. Carth helped me." Tali stuttered slightly, she gestured to Carth. She looked at Mission in front of her, she had no idea what her expression was but she was anxious that it was disbelief. "If you don't believe me then have you ever seen someone that looks like me? Have you ever seen weapons and armour like that?" Tali pointed towards the nearby M8 – Avenger.

"It's alright." Mission said slowly, walking towards Tali, "I believe you." She said with certainty in her voice, surprising Tali who had been sure that Mission would be doubtful.

"Really…?" Tali replied after a long silence, her voice dripping with anxiety, she was holding her wrists and shuffled to the side nervously awaiting a response.

"Yes." Mission said after a long silence, "I've never left Taris, but my Brother used to tell me about all the different kinds of life in the galaxy and what could be lurking outside of the galaxy." She smiled slightly while reminiscing about her brother, Tali detected from her slightly pained and forced smile that it was likely a sensitive subject. "I'm ready to believe anything after what's happened recently, but now isn't the time to tell me your whole story – that can come later."

Tali was overjoyed and barely able to contain it, instead she sighed and let her arms down in a relaxed state, she definitely felt far more relaxed now that she had let others know about her past. "Thank you. But can we keep this quiet for now? I would prefer it if less people knew."

Mission nodded and offered a friendly smile, "Anyway, the Beks should be done installing that engine by now, and I sent Big Z to carry it back to their base." She turned around to Zelka who had been a little bit surprised by the preceding conversation and was obviously in heavy thought, "We can leave Nick here for now, right?" Mission stated, her reply was that of Zelka turning to her with a shocked look on his face, he simply nodded in silence and decided that the best course of action would be to just leave it alone and go back to business.

"Are we all ready?" Mission asked, already walking through the open door onto the street which was now flushed with activity from citizens and merchants shambling all over the place, however the Sith presence had gotten even heavier with the checkpoints persisting and large patrols going back and forth through doors that lead to other platforms or other buildings. Above the crowd, Carth could see a squad of Sith Commandos escorting a large group of aliens and humans out of one of the apartment complexes.

"ATTENTION ALL CITZENS." The dreaded loudspeaker came on with another whine, demanding the attention of every single person in the vicinity. "ANY AND ALL DISSENT WILL BE MET WITH OVERWHELMING FORCE, FOLLOW INSTURCTIONS AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED." The speaker switched off with another feedback whine, the citizens continued to trudge around with their spirits and any fight left within them crushed.

The group continued on in silence, doing their best to stay out of trouble, deciding to take the Sith for their word, they continued back to the checkpoint at which point their clearance was still active and they were waved down to the lower city.


	22. Bad Dreams

The three of them cautiously walked the corridors of the Lower City, even though the Vulkar base had been raided and most of the members killed or routed, Brejik still held power so the gang war was still raging on and there was still the chance for an ambush.

Luckily however, they were able to make it back to the Bek base without running into any trouble, the lookout waved them through and the three of them approached Gadon at the end of the hall. Tali still felt anxious as the Bek's looked at her with suspicion and judgement, Zaalbaar was standing beside Gadon and the Wookiee instantly started walking towards Mission once he noticed her approaching.

"Big Z!" Mission exclaimed as she hugged Zaalbaar tightly, the Wookiee didn't instantly reciprocate the gesture, Tali watched him as he seemed to exhibit embarrassment as his Twi'lek friend hugged him, but the gesture could easily have been something else, Tali made a mental note to research Wookiee behaviour so she could understand him without knowing the language.

"Mission! It's good to hear your voice." Gadon said as he turned to face Mission, his artificial eyes jittering slightly from side to side. "We started installing the engine as soon as Zaalbaar arrived, Zaerdra is down there now."

"I guess that means we won't get the same 'warm welcome' as last time." Carth remarked as he smiled from the less than satisfactory joke. Tali and Mission both cringed as soon as he said it.

"You'll have to forgive Zaerdra, she just wants to make sure nothing happens to me. It's… comforting." Gadon replied, ignoring the joke entirely. Tali noticed that his eyelids closed slightly and a warm smile came across his face for a split second. "The engine should be installed soon, but the race isn't until tomorrow." Gadon quickly said as he flushed away any emotions he had been displaying before, secretly hoping that nobody noticed how he had talked about Zaerdra.

"What should we do in the mean time?" Tali quickly asked as she stepped forwards, gathering the attention of Gadon who jumped slightly at the unfamiliar sound of her voice.

"You're welcome to stay here, if you have anything to do then you are free to leave and come back as you desire." Gadon stopped rather abruptly, as if he had noticed something important, a serious look came onto his face "Where is Nick?" He asked with a demanding tone in his voice.

Mission and Carth looked to one another as they contemplated what to say, finally Mission spoke up: "Nick had a run in with the wrong end of Sith Assault droid, we took to him to Zelka though."

Gadon had a look of slight relief on his face but he still looked concerned, "I know Brejik put a price on his head, I'd feel a lot safer if I sent someone to look out for him." He pushed a few buttons on the console in front of him.

Mission and Carth looked at each other and nodded, they hadn't even considered the possibility that the bounty hunters might go after him again, "Alright, but make sure they don't draw too much attention."

Gadon nodded and brought up a comm line to one of his security detail, "Greeda, I need you to go and guard Nick. He's at the Medical Facility. Be discreet, don't even let Zelka see you. You'll know what to do."

"You got it boss, nothing will get through me." Greeda replied cockily, she switched off the channel before Gadon could.

"Do you have beds that we can use?" Tali quickly asked, sounding exhausted through the light static of her helmet. She hadn't realised just how exhausted she was until this moment, after all she had been on her feet a whole day at least.

"Of course, I'll get you all a room right away. Just through the doors behind me, the rooms are there." Gadon replied as he gestured to a wall, Tali figured that his blind state was to account for that little misstep, but she understood which doors he meant.

The group stepped through the doors and stopped in front of the rooms in question. "What are we all going to do then?" Mission asked as she opened one of the rooms to peek inside, they were all singles.

"I need to rest; all this has been a lot to take in." Tali slowly said as she leaned against the wall, Mission and Carth both offered sympathetic nods, given what she had been through they were not at all surprised that she needed the sleep.

"I'm going down to the garage, I need to see if this engine works or not." Mission set off back to the main hall to ask Gadon where to go, "Come on Big Z, with me." The Wookiee closely followed behind as the door opened and then closed behind them.

Tali entered her room as Carth stepped into the doorway, leaning into the frame "Are you alright?" He asked as he watched the Quarian observe the room.

"As good as I can be." Tali replied a little coldly "I'm sorry, I just need to be alone for a while." She didn't turn to look at Carth, she was holding back tears. After everything that had happened she hadn't yet had the time to come to terms with it.

"Oh, okay. I'm going to the Cantina." Carth said as he shut the door behind him leaving Tali alone with nothing but her thoughts.

Tali sat on the bed and took off her armoured vest, there were a few scrapes and scratched but her suit had not been pierced, she considered herself lucky as if one of those energy weapons had pierced her suit she was sure that would be the end. She wanted to crawl out of her suit which was feeling more like a shell, but she knew she couldn't, she sighed softly as she pondered it all. Tali lay her head back on the bed, the padding in the back of her helmet acted as a cushion and her hood dropped a little revealing the back of her helmet. She tried emptying her mind as the exhaustion took over and she drifted into a deep sleep.

* * *

It was black, nothing but black, Tali could not move until he appeared in front of her. His black armour blending into the background – only the red stripe stood out, they moved towards each other, both removing their helmets. Once they met they shared a deep and passionate kiss, holding each other tight, saying nothing but comforting each other anyway.

Then they were in London, just before the citadel beam, as they pulled away she watched the beam strike the ground and track its target into a red explosion. Her hope was restored when she viewed is vital, he was just barely alive and as soon as the beam pulsed the connection was lost and she had no idea what had befallen him.

Then she was watching it happen, the Citadel engulfed in fire, the Crucible detonating in a massive shockwave destroying Reapers and allies alike until finally stopping, she knew he was gone but he would never leave her heart.

They were deep in embrace again and this time whispering at each other.

"Tali." He said in that calming yet intimidating voice of his, "I'll always love you."

She looked deep into his eyes, staring right into his core, charging her timid yet fierce voice as she replied. "So will I… Shepard." She pushed her head into his chest as she wrapped her arms around him.

His arms fell limp as she looked up into his face, burnt and bloodied, the flesh melted off his face leaving the outline of his skull lined with what was left of his skin and blood. His body fell limp as she tried to hold him up, tears welling in her eyes. The red light appeared above her and she saw it, the towering monstrosity shining its light right onto her, all her anger and hatred bursting out as she stood to face it.

The Reaper made a metallic screech and fired its beam, vaporizing Tali in an instant.

* * *

Tali shot up from her slumber, panting and gasping as the images she just saw faded from her vision. She blinked rapidly as beads of sweat started forming on her forehead, it was getting too hot in her suit, she wanted out as soon as possible.

Finding it impossible to relax Tali decided to step out for a while; she had lost balance timewise and was sure that her body clock was in complete disarray. She materialized her omni-tool on her arm which caught the attention of a passing gang member who, in his amazement, nearly walked into the door before opening it. Tali held back a snicker as the man nervously opened the door and stepped through, as the small interface appeared showing her the time aboard the Normandy.

 **[11:23 AM]**

Tali relaxed slightly as she read that it would have been morning on the Normandy and, given the fact that she had grown used to Earth Standard Time, she breathed in a sigh of relief and wondered for how long she had been sleeping. To her right there was a symbol on the wall that seemed to represent a vehicle, Tali assumed that it was supposed to be the garage where Mission and Zaalbaar were, and she had no idea if Carth was back from the cantina.

As Tali entered the elevator she pressed the only button within and it slowly creaked into life before heading down at a slow pace. The elevator was quite large, obviously meant for heavy cargo, the railings were rusty, and the walls were open allowing Tali to see the piping on the walls of the shaft. After a minute or so the elevator came to a sudden and shaky stop before the door screeched open, making Tali flinch at the ear-piercing sound.

The Bek garage was nowhere near as large as the Vulkar garage; there was a large durasteel door to the far left and on the far right was a door that led to an office. There were only two vehicles in the garage, one looked completely destroyed and the other looked serviceable enough. Tali could see Mission and Zaalbaar standing next to the destroyed vehicle, conversing with an alien that Tali had never seen before, it had a large head with no visible hair and large black eyes in the centre of its face. Tali was slightly taken by surprise as it looked exactly like the aliens present in human culture, big emotionless eyes and a body comprised entirely of one colour. As she approached, Mission turned around and greeted her with a smile. "Good to see you up, how do you feel?" Mission asked as she walked closer to Tali.

"I'm okay, have you seen Carth?" Tali said, slightly weary from her nightmare, things were bad enough she didn't want anything to get worse.

"I'm right here." Carth said, startling Tali as she spun around to greet him, Mission giggled quietly as she stood beside the Quarian.

"Good, now that we're all here we can ready for this race." Mission said as she gestured for Zaalbaar to stand beside her, "The race is going to be soon, the engine modification is completely installed, but we need to pick a rider."

"Why?" Carth started as looked at the swoop bike before him, "Surely Gadon has a rider already."

"It's not that simple." Zaerdra called out as she came from the offices beside them, Gadon was accompanying her.

"What now?" Tali said, irritated and gathering a disapproving look from Gadon's Twi'lek aide.

"You see, we've tested the modification, but the bike might not be able to take it. We're not going to risk one of our own riders, so one of you will ride instead." Zaerdra smugly replied, almost as if she wanted the newcomers dead.

"What?" Mission said, clearly aggravated, "We risked our lives to get this mod for you…" Mission continued to argue on until Carth interrupted her.

"I'll do it." Carth said, Mission and Tali both looked at him surprised, in reaction to their stares Carth decided to appease them "I've flown one of these models before and I'm a trained Starfighter pilot. I'm your best choice."

"He does have a point." Tali said as she crossed her arms, "I wouldn't know how to fly this thing, and you're probably too young to even enter." Tali pointed at Mission who had anger growing on her face.

"It's settled then, you'll ride for us." Gadon said mere moments before Mission could erupt at Tali. "Now, there won't be enough time to practice the course, so we'll have to just give you a rundown and to keep the bike up to scratch we'll give you one of our engineers."

"Okay, anything else I should know?" Carth asked, a sense of urgency bubbling through his voice.

"Everything else will be explained on the course, the race is in a couple of hours so head there now and set up." Gadon replied as the mechanic on the swoop bike began powering it up to transit it to the race course. The durasteel door opened to reveal a tunnel that would no doubt take them to the course. Carth followed the bike and the mechanic towards the door; Tali, Mission and Zaalbaar were close behind. "No." Zaerdra quickly said, causing the four of them to turn around "Only racers and mechanics are allowed on the course, you three will have to stay." She gestured to Tali, Mission and Zaalbaar, the trio drew suspicious and anxious looks but in the end decided that it was in their best interests to comply. "Good." Zaerdra replied, Tali detected a hint of smugness in her voice, however she decided that it was best not to jump to any conclusions as she really had no idea about Twi'lek manners and gestures. To tell the truth, she was amazed that her translation software was even doing its job, the chances of such a thing were mind boggling to say the least.

Carth and the speeder were led away towards the track while Mission, Tali and Zaalbaar watched.


End file.
